Not only have The 2525 Apartments filled up since leasing began a year ago, but there’s also a waiting list to rent the one-, two-, three- or four-bedroom units.
Friday afternoon, Real America, the developer of the apartment complex at 2525 Durbin St., Warsaw, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate their one-year anniversary.
Real America President Mike Surak said, “This is a really exciting milestone we’ve hit, celebrating our one-year opening of The 2525 Apartments here in Warsaw.”
He noted they’ve been working on the site since 2020, but Real America’s relationship with the city of Warsaw goes back to the early 2000s. Their first project was the Heron Preserve, affordable housing on the north side of town. Those were very successful and a second phase was completed.
Shortly after that, Surak said, they did some corporate housing, called Heron Corporate, also on the north side.
Finding A Location
In late 2019/early 2020, Surak said Real America approached the city about doing more affordable housing in the area. Jeremy Skinner, Warsaw community and economic development director, and Joe Thallemer, then-mayor, were interested in more developments for affordable housing.
After Real America looked at several different sites, Skinner pointed them to the large vacant Arnolt Corp. building on Durbin Street.

    Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner speaks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for The 2525 Apartments while Real America President Mike Surak (L) listens. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

“It was in rough shape and there was a lot of cleanup that had to be done, but we saw the location, we saw what was going on and we also just heard what was called the Argonne Corridor Plan ... and, really, through conversations with Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce, KEDCO, the city of Warsaw, this looked like a great opportunity to kind of kick off the growth in the area,” Surak stated.
In 2021, Real America was able to secure tax credits for the affordable housing thanks to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA).
“We had a lot of challenges here, but the city was incredibly great to work with. Merchants Bank and Merchants Capital, our primary lending and syndication partner, was great to work with,” he said.
Housing Needed
The first renters moved into their apartments on May 20, 2024. Within the first two months, the property leased out, and they’re 100% full as of Friday. Surak said they have a wait list of over 100 households for different units, which “is just incredible, especially for a city this size.”
After the ceremony, Kosciusko Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker said those figures confirm that there’s a need for more housing in the community.
“So when we say that, right now with the current conditions we have, that we need more, how much more are we going to need as we continue to grow? So we always have to be looking forward to bring more housing and more housing opportunities to this community,” Parker said. “The city’s doing a good job of promoting those and finding places for the Real Americas of the world to have their projects that give people homes.”
Leasing & Amenities
The 2525 Apartments have an AMI (Area Median Income) mix of 30 to 60%, Surak said during the ceremony. “We think we’ve really captured a range of affordability for people who really need it. A lot of times you’ll see developments that have 80% AMI, which is, a lot of cases, market-rate, typically. So this is true affordable housing for people that live and work in the community here,” he stated.

    Inside The 2525 Apartments’ clubhouse is a play café for young children while their parents work remotely or earn their GED or other degree online. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

Before the ceremony, Property Manager Kimberly Davis said there are 60 total units. The three- and four-bedroom units have two bathrooms.
“Right now I’m completely booked up, but I should have something available between June and August. People’s leases are starting to renew and I’m not exactly sure who’s going to renew, who’s not going to renew,” she said.
Along with a little dog park, The 2525 has three waystations for pets. Inside the clubhouse is a community room, that can be rented out by residents for $100. If there’s no damages, that $100 will go toward the resident’s next month rent. There are two computer rooms and a multi-purpose room in the clubhouse. They also have a fitness room and a Play Café.
When putting the apartments together, Surak said they got ideas from LaunchPad and its director, Sherry Searles, at the Chamber.
“Whenever we put these developments together, we want there to kind of be a theme. So during the time of Covid, there was a lot of working from home or online learning, and we thought this would be a great opportunity to build a larger clubhouse than we typically would,” he said. “So Sherry got the idea of a Play Café.”
While parents are working from home or trying to get their GED in the clubhouse, the Play Café room gives their young kids a place to go where they’re close by.
Parker said during Covid, LaunchPad came up with the idea of doing a Play Café. “How do we get individuals who are working remotely to be able to more efficient in their job with young kids. So what they did here, that was very creative, is that they have a play space for young kids to be able to hang out and they have a room next to it where somebody could work,” he said.
Davis said rent varies and they have three different tiers.
“We have a 30%, a 50% and a 60% and that goes off how much they make annually for the total household income, and that goes off how many people are going to be in the unit, so the rent will kind of vary,” she said.
Appreciation For Support
Surak said having Bowen Health, Grace College, Ivy Tech, KEDCO and other resources around is really important to Real America. “Any service we can provide our residents is really great,” he said.
Surak thanked the Warsaw Housing Authority for providing vouchers and helping with residential referrals. The Warsaw Redevelopment Commission sold Real America the property for a significant discount. Indiana Finance Authority supported the brownfield cleanup on the site. Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) was instrumental from the beginning with the cleanup, too.

    The 2525 Apartments have a small dog park for residents’ pets. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

Skinner said, “A lot of times you come up with ideas and you don’t know how they’re going to turn out. They were looking at a couple different sites and I said, ‘You know, those sites are great, but would really like to see you do something here. And at the time there were a lot of questions and a lot less answers. But working with Mike’s team, IDEM and IHCDA and MACOG, we came up with a lot of answers to make this project happen. And what a great project it is.”
He said having The 2525 Apartments be the anchor to the Argonne Corridor project has been really exciting to see.
“And then also being able to couple that with helping people that need housing - all kinds of housing,” Skinner said. A lot of times the city will see before it market-rate or single-family homes because that’s what the community easily accepts. “But we’ve never shied away from these projects and having great partners like Real America and Mike to do these projects has been very successful in Warsaw. This is our third project in the last eight years that we’ve done affordable housing, so Warsaw has never shied away from that. Certainly, being able to partner with the IHCDA and other state agencies has helped us greatly, so we appreciate all the partners that have helped us work on this project.”
Josh Reed, Merchants Capital executive vice president, said Merchants Capital specializes in affordable housing. “Lending and equity in this project is what the program is meant to do. We were very excited to be able to finance (this project), so thank you to Real America, the city, the IHCDA and everything to help bring this transformative project to fruition. We’re excited about it.”
Parker said, “When you look at this project that’s been done here, I’m a lifelong Kosciusko County resident. I’ve lived over in Winona Lake for over 15 years and we would drive this way. And I’ve got to tell you, I kind of forget what was here before, and isn’t that an awesome thing? Because if you go back and think about it, how dilapidated (it was), it was just bringing our community down. It was bringing the Argonne Corridor down. And with your investment, and every other partner that’s been mentioned, taking this and creating something that is absolutely beautiful and something we can be proud of, and giving people a home who need it the most, those who maybe can’t afford other homes. ... Thank you for all you’ve done, thank you to the city for your vision, thank you to all the partners who made this a reality. It’s beautiful.”