YORK, Pa. — Two local men have a vision and a plan to help revitalize a section of York city one block at a time.
What makes this project unique is the fact that they are also working on helping people move into their new homes and keep them. That's the vision of Fredrick Walker and Anthony Moore, the co-owners of Four Squares Development and Construction.
"We are in the process of demolishing the property and redeveloping this area in Salem Square," Walker said.
Why the Salem Square neighborhood? Four Squares partnered with York College to research and find areas of the city most in need of help.
The company purchased the three Salem Avenue units from the Redevelopment authority.
"We know that there is development being done in other areas of the city, but we wanted to help this part of the community as well," Walker said.
It is quite the undertaking.
The fronts of the units have been taken down as has most of the back portions of the buildings. Inside, all the old plaster has been taken down to reveal the studs that were put in place when the homes were built in the late 1800s.
"It's definitely a great one to start with—especially in this community," Cody Lightly, Four Squares' vice president of construction said. This allows everyone to see what we are about."
The team isn't just about rebuilding these homes. It's also about finding new owners.
Four Squares has partnered with Tenfold and other organizations, including the York College Center for Community Engagement to host "financial literacy" classes. The classes are part of York College's Urban Collaborative and are designed to help potential buyers with a down payment and lessons on how to be a first-time home buyer.
"So, our goal again is to get people in who can actually stay in the home," Four Squares co-owner Anthony Moore said. "That's how you sustain a community and be able to build property value and wealth. That's why we are taking such a cautious and pragmatic approach to it."
The company also bought one of the connecting units from the estate of Tammy Langle's grandmother.
Langle used to live in the unit with her grandmother and when she passed, Langle wasn't able to get the loan needed to purchase the property. So, Four Squares jumped in and bought the property and is helping Tammy become the eventual owner when the work is finished.
"They're great," Langle said. "If it wasn't for them, there wouldn't be anything. These [houses] would still be vacant. There wouldn't be anything going on... so it's good to see people do things like this with the vacant homes."
Langle will also take part in the financial literacy component of the project to help her get the necessary financing and help her become a first-time home buyer.
"Being that I've always had someone taking care of me—to do something on my own is a big thing," she said.
Sometime this summer, the homes should be ready for sale. Moore says a lot is going into these houses.
"We're not going to slap any lipstick on these pigs," Moore said. "We are actually going to go and renovate them with high end furnishings and really go about changing the whole trajectory and the whole stigma and reputation of the neighborhood. I just have a lot of pride and excitement and joy when I talk about it."
Moore says this is a "proof of performance project" for the company. If all goes as planned, Walker and Moore say they will look to purchase and rebuild more homes in the Salem Square neighborhood and then elsewhere around the city of York.
A financial literacy class previously planned for Feb. 19 at York College Center for Community Engagement along East Market Street in York has been rescheduled pending a later date.
For more information about the financial literacy classes, click here.
To sign up for the classes, click here.