South Bend man emerges as housing hero, creates luxury low-income homes

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - A South Bend native is emerging as a hometown hero of housing.

Jordan Richardson has come a long way in a short time as the leader of Property Bros. LLC.

What Jordan is creating around the city is kind of like ‘dry water.’

“We’re a luxury, low income, housing developer. So, what that means is, well, first of all, those words don’t even co-exist together right? Luxury low income, it’s like, how is that possible?”

It’s possible by buying dilapidated homes that are the worst of the worst. Places that are too far gone to even be on the radar in a red-hot real estate market.

“Right now, we’re working on our 13th unit. I’ve been doing this for about a year, which, I know, that kind of sounds crazy but, we actually finished nine units in a year’s time and now we’re on to our two duplexes which will be our thirteenth unit,” Richardson said.

Officials today cut the ribbon for a recent renovation of Portage Road. They also celebrated the fact that Jordan’s unconventional style is finally being backed with unconventional financing. A $500,000 line of credit has been extended by Cinnaire (CDFI).

“Sometimes a project makes sense economically. They pencil out, but they just don’t check all the boxes for banks, to where a project to be bankable,” said South Bend Mayor James Mueller. “So, there are creative financing organizations that can come into play and that’s what we have here.”

Property Bros. now has five guys creating its brand of luxury low-income housing.

Thus far, all the units have been rented, not sold.

“Obviously, they’re renting the property. Obviously, the person did not come in and purchase and own the home, but you have to understand, in the market of section eight or low income housing, I’ve walked into homes that people have currently under contact and it’s just unthinkable right? I asked myself would my mom want to live in this?” Richardson asked.

Jordan Richardson is a South Bend native who went to Washington High School and IUSB. He worked for 1st Source Bank and spent seven years developing utility scale solar projects for Inovateus.

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