Green Country Habitat for Humanity started construction Saturday on 10 homes in what will become the Wilshire Trails neighborhood in north Tulsa.
At its completion, the neighborhood — located just off East 33rd Street North, next to Educare and Hawthorne Park — will comprise 31 single-family homes.
Construction on the first 10 should take about 60-75 days, Cameron Walker, Green Country Habitat’s CEO, told The Eagle. He said they already have families ready to move in.
The development of Wilshire Trails, like Flat Rock Ridge and the $20 million Crossover Community Impact, is a sign of progress for an area where development is long overdue, Walker told a large crowd of volunteers Saturday morning.
“If you would have been here five years ago, this entire area looked considerably different. So I can’t wait to see what five years from now is going to look like,” he said.
North Tulsa’s Phoenix District has also seen a wave of new development in recent years.
About $1 million went towards upgrading infrastructure underground in preparation for the Wilshire Trails homes, Walker told The Eagle.
“There was no sanitary sewer system in this neighborhood. All of the existing homes that you see and the ones that were ultimately raised were on private septic systems,” he said. “So a lot of infrastructure work has taken place under your feet that ultimately will make this a really cool and thriving neighborhood.”
Volunteers braved rain throughout the morning as they worked on getting walls raised on the homes.
District 1 City Councilwoman Vanessa Hall-Harper told volunteers the project will not only bring more housing to north Tulsa but is a benefit to the entire city.
“This is what a meaningful investment in north Tulsa looks like. Quality homes, new opportunities and families who will help shape the future of this neighborhood, as well as the business growth that we know we need in this community and in this city,” she said.
She told The Eagle when she first took office, she and Walker “had a real honest conversation” about her expectations.
“And I said I appreciate Habitat but I want to make sure that what you build are quality homes,” Hall-Harper said. “He promised that he would ensure that the homes would be quality homes that appreciated, not depreciated. And we have worked together collaboratively to ensure that happens.”
