Imani Village is central to the redevelopment of the Riverside neighborhood in northeast Wilmington, Delaware.
Built to uplift an area that has suffered decades of neglect and economic distress, the development’s latest phase delivers 67 new townhomes in five buildings. Imani Village Phase II has 26 units reserved for families earning no more than 30% of the area median income (AMI) and 24 units for families earning no more than 50% of the AMI. The remaining units are unrestricted but target families in the 40% to 60% AMI range.
The new mixed-income homes replace the area’s aging public housing that has been demolished. Former public housing residents were given priority to move into the new residences.
“What makes this revitalization effort so special and unique is the ‘By the Community, for the Community’ focus of the partnership between Wilmington Housing Authority, REACH Riverside, Purpose Built Communities, and Pennrose,” says Ryan Bailey, senior developer at Pennrose. “The partnership provides best practices from across the country to answer the requests of the residents of Wilmington, and the result is not just great housing but four organizations providing ‘cradle to cane’ services to make residents lives better and this a neighborhood of choice.”
The development was built on a vacant parcel, which not only turned around an unused site but allowed residents to move just once rather than multiple times during the transition, adds Bailey.
The approximately $22.2 million development is Delaware’s first project designed on the principles of Purpose Built Communities, a national organization that supports holistic community development.
Imani Village Phase II is an essential component of an eight-phase plan that will result in more than 700 mixed-income housing units, an expanded charter school, a new Kingswood Community Center with an early learning center and a senior center, and a recently delivered Teen Warehouse to support the neighborhood’s youth.
The success of the recent development helped leverage a 2023 federal Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant that will support future phases.
