NORTHWOOD — The official groundbreaking of the $30 million residential project, called the Enclave and Bridges of Northwood, took place at the site of the former Woodville Mall on Thursday.

Bob Anderson, Northwood administrator, said there’s been a lot of interest in the site.

“All the infrastructure’s going in. We spent $5.5 million putting in all the roads, sewers and other infrastructure, but no one can see it from Woodville Road, so they don’t know what’s going on here. Now that we will be having the vertical construction, with buildings, people will start noticing the site,” Anderson said.

The event took place at the revitalized entrance bridge to the former Woodville Mall property, which will utilize the same access road off Woodville Road.

“What a difference to see the actual sidewalks going in and the trees going in. The vision that the city has had a lot of pieces, to actually bring that vision to maturation,” Ed Schimmel, Northwood mayor, said. “A big chunk of this project is not so much the city side of the developing, it’s the private side of the developing.”

Dwayne Seiter, director of construction for Northwood Crossings, described the first phase of vertical construction for the Enclave site.

The Bridges of Northwood will encompass 24.3 acres of the larger 120 acres Enclave project. In that first phase will be 18 of the 135 townhouses. There will also be a 1.5-acre pond and a 1.5-mile walking trail.

The townhouses will be priced starting at $250,000 and up to $325,000, in four designs that are either ranch or colonial style, from 1,400 square feet to 2,000 square feet.

“This used to be a place that was busy and bustling with a lot of activity. That’s our hope again with this development, that the small piece we are doing is going to cause that. It’s pretty special to have a live-work-play community located right off the highway,” Peter Formica, director of sales and marketing for Keller Williams Realty, said.

He suggested that the community will draw people from all over Northwest Ohio.

“People are going to come from Toledo and Perrysburg. They’re going to drive here. People are going to come to Northwood because of this project,” Formica added.

The first townhouses are anticipated to start going up at the end of June.

Anderson said that the mall was once anchored with a JC Penney, Elder-Beerman and Sears.

“We tore those down seven or eight years ago. It took a few years to get those buildings down,” Anderson said, urging patience. “This is the answer to what we are doing with this property.

“We’re laying the groundwork for some commercial development in the front and the residential development in the back,” he added.

More information can be found at www.bridgesofnorthwood.com.