LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An "affordable workforce housing" community is being developed in West Baden Springs, Indiana with the help of French Lick Resort.

The resort partnered with the Orange County Economic Development Partnership to build up the Abydel Pike housing project, which will be the first subdivision the community has seen in nearly 60 years.

Kristal Painter, the executive director of the Orange County Economic Development Partnership, said housing in Orange County is an issue.

The Regional Opportunities Initiative of the Indiana Uplands region conducted a study last year, and found a need for 269 homes in Orange County by 2025 and 229 houses by 2030.

"Our biggest employers, French Lick Resort, saw the need for additional housing and they actually stepped up to the plate and are helping us solve the problem," Painter said.

The resort received a $1 million matching grant in 2019 to begin constructing homes outside the neighborhood. The money made from selling the homes will be used to build more homes, according to a French Licks press release.

“People have an opportunity to come in and buy a brand new three-bedroom, two-bathroom house and a two-car full garage at $155,000," Painter said. 

The Abydel Pike subdivision can hold around 70 homes.

Raymond Ininger, who has lived in the area for the past 50 years, supports the change in the area.

"The whole neighborhood's changed," he said. "It was country over there then, it's going to be city now." 

Ininger is looking forward to welcoming his neighbors as much as he does the change.

"I think it'll look nice when they get it all landscaped and everything," Ininger said. 

Construction has already begun on the first four homes of the subdivision, with two homes nearly complete.

The first home of the project was completed last year and is located only feet from the subdivision on Abbeydale Road.

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