On Tuesday, October 1, the Gold Coats of the Chamber of Commerce gathered together for a ceremony, but it didn’t include a green ribbon and the infamous giant golden scissors. Instead, it was a golden shovel.
On that cool, windy morning, Andrew Ammons threw dirt with that golden shovel to signify the beginning of a project he had only dreamed of.
“We’re breaking ground on a new residential housing development for Pampa,” he said. “It’s a three-phase project and the total area out here is platted for 87 homes. We’re starting with phase one which is 34 homes, all single-family which means they’re not duplexes or apartments. It’s an exciting day. We’re officially breaking ground and turning dirt.”
Andrew’s love for the place he has always called home drove his passion to do something for not only the community, but for the expansion of Pampa as a whole and for newcomers to have a place where they too can call home.
“I’m born and raised from Pampa and everything that everyone always came back to when it came to growth was that we don’t have new homes. And yes we have homes here in Pampa and they’re great homes, but any large expansion that any large company has tried to do, they’re typically met with where are all those employees, management-where are all those people going to live?”
“I’ve had personal experience with working to recruit people and bring people to town and they love the people of Pampa, they love the community, which is what me and my wife love so much about Pampa, but people who are looking to move here come to town and they’re excited for that and then an HR person will drive them around and they’ll be looking. We have to understand that outside of our bubble that we live in, there’s new housing, there’s new things. So the people who are trying to bring something in, want those new things.”
“We’ve always believed that it’s something that is needed. There’s a lot of industry and a lot of big projects that are coming to town and we believe that there’s going to need to be housing for them. We don’t know exactly who’s going to deliver them, but we believe that God’s going to provide the people to live in these homes.”
The homes in phase one will include a three-bedroom, two-bath on just over 1,200 square feet and four-bedroom, three-bath on 1,550 square feet. Andrew’s inspiration comes from the homes that are located in the surrounding neighborhood and he plans to build in their likeness, but with all new updates at a reasonable listing price once the project is complete, which according to Andrew, will be sooner rather than later.
“If you can imagine Navajo and these last three blocks here and just pull them into 2024 and make them brand new homes with brand new turf yards, trees, granite counter tops, all of that. Our target price is low $200,000 because we believe that’s what the community needs, not $3-400,000 homes.”
“So land development which includes all of the earth work that we’re doing now, curbs, gutters, paving and utilities-all of that is expected to be done in February of 2025 with our first home starting in March 2025. We’re working to line up with other hiring groups and large industries that are coming to town. We also believe though that the city is ready for it regardless. We believe these homes will be filled with people not only from industries wanting to come in, but locals as well who want something fresh.”
With the support of the city and the community at his back, Andrew is excited for what the future holds for Pampa and to finally be able to execute a long-awaited dream is something that he feels overwhelmingly blessed by.
“Shane Stokes with the City of Pampa has been wildly supportive throughout this whole thing, Cary Rushing with the City who I’ve been talking about things like this for three years, Joshua Jowers who represents Windmill Management and is a partner, and Holly Betenbough who is my other partner in this project who has no ties to the Pampa community, but loves our town and has prayed over our people numerous times.”
“God kept stepping in and creating the relationships and bringing in people I didn’t even know. I put this land under contract two years ago, and I had no idea how this was going to go. I had no idea where the financing would come from, no ideas if there would be partners. I just knew there was an opportunity and one thing that stood in the way of Pampa’s growth from the time I was 14 years old was new housing. And so I put it under contract, and from partners to financing to plan sets and support, God has continued to provide.”
