Smithfield – Do you remember Woodleaf?
The proposed development promised to bring 490 single -family houses, 691 town houses and 824 apartments to 491 acres on the Mallard Road east of Interstate 95.
It never happened “because it couldn't afford it to be able to happen,” said Mark Lyczkowski on August 5, the city council of Smithfield.
Lyczkowski is the real estate investor behind Mallard Crossing, the Woodleaf with 873 single -family houses and 454 townhouses in the same country on the Mallard Road.
Lyczkowski is confident that the Mallard Crossing will be successful where Woodleaf failed after his developer created bankruptcy protection. “I think the difference you see between … Woodleaf and our presentation that we are actually a team,” he said.
Lyczkowski said that he had set up a development company, competitor development, and a house builder, Ryan Homes, to bring the crossing of the mallard to life. “I have put together these people who actually have the money and the ability to put this project on site,” he said.
Paul Luck of Contender Development said the team looked at the Woodleaf plans, but released it. “We … started everywhere,” he said. “For several reasons, the original plan did not make sense – the marketability, the price, the abundance of town houses. There were 691 city houses, 824 apartments. We simply did not feel that this was a place where they placed apartments.”
The competitor scraped the apartments and postponed the number of town houses by 224. In its place, the company plans 873 single -family houses or 382 more than Woodleaf.
These houses will be on small land – 5,000 square meters. But Lyczkowski said that he needed these smaller properties to regain his significant investments in the project, including the range of water and sewer under the I-95.
“There are about $ 10 million of water and sewer worth around $ 10 million that have to come to this location,” said Lyczkowski. “We have to make sure that we basically don't fail.”
Luck said Mallard Crossing would offer various residential products at several prices. “This community as proposed hits for the cycle,” he said with a baseball metaphor. “You can literally buy your first house here and buy your last house here and in between. There are very few communities that offer this.”
Some of the apartments, including townhouses with bedrooms on the first floor, would judge pensioners. “They follow their grandchildren and want to live nearby,” said Luck.
The amenities of Mallard Crossing would be many.
“They beat two club houses with swimming pools, playground equipment, dog park, pavilions, decorative fences, shadow accommodation, lawn sports, pickleball, water from” and fountain, “said Stephen Wensman, planning director of Smithfield.
The council gave the project its blessing. The construction would begin at the end of 2026 or early 2027, and the last houses would be offered for sale in 2032.
“This is obviously very exciting and I think it is an improvement of what we had,” said Mayor Andy Moore. “The infrastructure is enormous. The under 95 on this side of the city is simply enormous.”