Firefly Commons Apartments Completed
Our new Firefly Commons project in Elkins is complete and fully leased. The 16-unit development is made up of six duplexes and a 4-unit townhome. After many years of community planning, Woodlands broke ground on the $4.2M project October 2021 and residents moved in this past December.
Twelve of the units are or can be made fully accessible, and with individual entrances, yard space, and a community green in the middle, the development is intended to be family-friendly, mixed generation housing. Most tenants are from the local community and surrounding counties.
Back in the summer of 2022, Anne Schoonover, had been given notice that the apartment she’d been living in for 15 years on the other side of Elkins was not going to be available anymore. “A friend of mine heard they were putting this in, so I called and got on the list. I was real lucky to call when I did,” she said. “I have bad knees and back. Before I had six steps but here, I have no steps and a walk-in shower, which I love.”
Sitting at her kitchen table in her two-bedroom duplex apartment, Schoonover, gestures at the room around her, “I’ve never really had a place this nice and this roomy. Now I can finally say I have my first real home.”
Woodlands Director Dave Clark organized community discussions back in 2014 that eventually led the organization to develop this project. “There were several significant funding and logistics hurdles to clear for this project to happen so we are thrilled to finally see it come to fruition and serve the housing needs of this area,” Clark said.
“Final financing for the project came,” Clark said, “from a variety of sources and some of our great local partners, including Grant County Bank, Pendleton Community Bank and the WV Housing Development Fund.” Mountain Valley Bank and the City of Elkins also played key roles in moving the project to reality.
Woodlands was formed in 1995 to address housing and community development needs in Randolph, Barbour, and Tucker Counties. Woodlands believes that healthy, vibrant communities have safe and engaging neighborhoods that provide housing for all people. To apply for a unit at Firefly Commons, download/print and fill out this rental application, or call 304.636.6495 to request a rental application packet be mailed to you. Some income restrictions apply.
Blackwater Apartments Now Providing Workforce Housing for Upper Tucker County
Eight units in Davis are move in ready as community deliberates on what project to take on next Together with the local supporters and state champions who made this ...
Read More
Green Building Initiative: Conditioned Crawl Spaces
Since our inception in the mid-1990s Woodlands has been pushing the envelope and including green building practices on every project. Wrapped in the final package of a finished house, ...
Read More
Northview Apartments Impress Local Residents and US Senators
When we completed work on our Northview Senior Apartments in 2016 the project was lauded by everyone from our US Senator Shelly Moore Capito to the new tenants of ...
Read More
Invest Appalachia Announces $19M in New Funding
Invest Appalachia (IA) has announced $19M of new investment in a fund to provide capital to community economic development projects. Focused on increasing investment in Appalachia overall, 90% of ...
Read More
Non-traditional Lenders Playing Key Role in Success of Tygart Hotel Rehab
A key partner in the Tygart Hotel project, Partner Community Capital, recently sent a team from their Charles Town, WV to take stock of the progress being made in ...
Read More
Autism Support Brings Services, Careers to Small Towns
At Woodlands Community Lenders, our mission is to support small businesses and foster economic growth in rural communities. One of our standout success stories this year comes from Mountainside ...
Read More
Now Hiring Construction Crew
CLICK HERE TO APPLY Woodlands Development Group is hiring a dedicated construction journeyman to join our team. Woodlands is a non-profit organization, dedicated to serving our community through the ...
Read More
Paint it Black 6: Photographing Your Artwork
Michelle Waters, Photographer October 13th, Old Brick Playhouse, Elkins, WV Register here Photographing Your Art with Michelle Waters Photographer Michelle Waters will share the best tips, tricks and tools ...
Read More
Mon Forest Towns Initiative Awarded $1.89 ARC POWER Grant
Elkins, West Virginia, October 16, 2024 — Woodlands Community Lender, on behalf of the Mon Forest Towns Partnership, has been awarded $1,897,136 by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to ...
Read More
The Land Kept Us: The Story of the Lost Towns & the Tygart Hotel
Donate here to support the Tygart Community Investment Fund — providing ongoing arts, housing, and downtown enhancement project funding in Elkins, WV. Click here to watch full screen. Nestled ...
Read More