Neighborhood Progress, Inc. (NPI) and Russell Berusch, then the nonprofit’s vice president of real estate, set out with the local development corporation to build one of the first large-scale, for-sale residential subdivisions built in Cleveland since the 1950s.

In the process they aimed to demonstrate that both public-housing renters and potential homebuyers with suburban options would purchase homes in the Central neighborhood. The keys to making this happen: a quality product, a clear value proposition, security, and sense of community.

In the picture above is a park that is located in the center of Central Commons that the homeowners keep up throughout the year.