Updates under way at Historic Pleasant Street homes

Construction crews are about halfway done reviving three HAND-owned houses on Historic Pleasant Street, a $1.4 million development that will create four affordable two-bedroom rental units for working families.

Two of the units will be reserved for residents who earn no more than 60 percent of area median income, or about $58,000 for a family of four. One will be reserved for residents earning up to 50 percent AMI, and one is for residents earning up to 40 percent AMI.

The city of Noblesville donated the vacant houses to HAND in 2022, after the city’s Pleasant Street extension was rerouted to bypass the historic Plum Prairie neighborhood.

HAND’s initial plans called for renovating the homes, but 630 Historic Pleasant (right) will be demolished due to structural damage. That work is scheduled for Jan. 26, and construction of a new home on the site (below middle) will begin soon after.

Meanwhile, renovations continue at 544/546 Historic Pleasant (below left), which will remain a duplex, and at 648 Historic Pleasant (below right), which is being made ADA accessible. The State Historic Preservation Office signed off on the rehabilitation work and the new construction.

HAND’s Plum Prairie development won $880,000 in HOME funding from the Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority, and Hamilton County awarded the project almost $305,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds.

Additional funding came from Lake City Bank and MIBOR Realtor Foundation’s Economic and Community Development Council.

Construction is expected to be complete by mid-2024.

Brenner Design Architects is the architect for the development. Home Experts Indy is the general contractor.