If you call Luette Frost and her husband, Todd Grayson, real estate developers, expect a slight cringe from Frost. “I don’t know. I kind of hate that - the connotation,” she says. “Developer feels like such a bad word these days.”

Her reaction is understandable. In a region where home prices and rent are increasingly out of reach for the average person, developers are increasingly seen as big-money operators who are building or buying ever more homes, condos, and vacation rentals exclusively for folks with not-so-average incomes. Frost and Grayson don’t see themselves - or their family’s business - that way. The rural Traverse City residents run Frost Family Partnership (FFP), through which they and several family members own and manage 28 rental units in and around the area. They define their business as community-focused real estate development and property management and are committed to running it as such.

Case in point? In December, FFP purchased a six-plex of two-bedroom apartments on State Street in downtown Traverse City, behind Bubba’s restaurant. The couple plans to remodel and furnish two of the units and make them available for rent at a premium price so the remaining four can be had for $1,000 a month. “We’ve got two 24-year-olds in one [of the finished units] right now, and they are so excited to be downtown,” Frost says.

Read more about FFP's model - plus others trying to address the local housing crisis, like employers building or buying housing for employees - in this week's Northern Express, sister publication of The Ticker. The Northern Express is available to read online, or pick up a free copy on newsstands at nearly 700 spots in 14 counties across northern Michigan.