There are two new homes on the former Northville Downs racetrack, a short walk apart. One is an attached Carriage Home north of Beal Street, with a posted starting price of $989,000. The other is a detached single-family home in Toll Brothers' Secretariat Collection south of Beal Street, with its lowest listed design starting at $939,995. Both prices come from the builders' own pages as of October 4, 2026. The attached home costs more.
That one comparison explains most of The Downs. The 48-acre site is split between two developers. Toll Brothers is building 192 homes south of Beal Street. FHS, a partnership of The Forbes Co., Hunter Pasteur and Soave Enterprises, is building 58 for-sale homes, a 178-unit apartment building, retail space and public amenities on the north side. Both sides share a ZIP code, a school district and a park system. They sell at very different prices per square foot, and through late July they were also selling at very different speeds.
The price ladder as of October 4, 2026
The table uses each builder's lowest posted price and the smallest square footage listed for that collection. Starting prices don't always line up with the smallest plan, so read the per-square-foot column as an approximate ratio, not an appraisal. For the three Toll Brothers condo collections, the lowest prices shown are Quick Move-In homes, not to-order designs.
| Side of Beal | Collection | Home type | Lowest posted price | Smallest listed sq. ft. | Approx. $/sq. ft. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South | Cloverleaf | Townhome-style condo | $599,000 | 2,135 | $281 |
| South | Churchill | Condominium | $575,000 | 1,709 | $336 |
| South | Palomino | Townhome-style condo | $674,000 | 1,919 | $351 |
| South | Secretariat | Single-family | $939,995 | 2,073 | $453 |
| North | Carriage Homes | Attached | $989,000 | 2,427 | $407 |
| North | Griswold Townhomes | Attached | $1,089,000 | 2,445 | $445 |
| North | Cady Street Brownstones | Rowhouse-style | $1,769,000 | 2,675 | $661 |
Three more FHS products have pages but no posted prices yet. Beal Street Townhomes list 3,035 square feet with two bedrooms plus a home office. The Stinson is planned as eight single-level flats and one attached townhouse, from 1,998 to 2,965 square feet. Towns on Central Park list 3,162 to 3,370 square feet. The Detroit Free Press reported in July that the Towns on Central Park start at $2.3 million, which would make them the top rung on the site.
The north-side homes are larger than the south-side condos, but size doesn't explain the gap. A Cloverleaf condo and a Griswold Townhome differ by about 300 square feet at their smallest listed sizes, and by about $490,000 at their starting prices.
The north-side premium buys features and a short walk to Cady Street
On a Free Press tour, Hunter Pasteur COO and partner Seth Herkowitz listed what the FHS homes include: dual primary suites, prep pantries, California Closets, Thermador appliances, private elevators, rooftop terraces and flex spaces. He was also open about the bet behind the pricing:
"If you can provide an elevated product in a location that people desire, a lot of times you can drive pricing. It's our expectation, our thesis, that will be the case here."
He described the strategy as a "flight to quality": the company expects buyers to pay a premium for a type of housing that doesn't otherwise exist in the Northville market. The same report noted that few comparable projects exist in the area to gauge that demand. A downtown Northville agent who isn't involved in the project told the paper that the city's housing is mostly historic homes and decades-old subdivisions. That leaves few options for buyers who want new construction near downtown, and she said the attached garages, elevators and layouts appeal to downsizers.
So the north-side price is paying for three specific things: vertical living with a private elevator, a high finish package, and an address north of Beal Street, closer to downtown. Toll Brothers sells a different mix. Its collections range from two-story townhomes and three-story brownstone-style homes to first-floor-primary layouts and larger single-family homes. Secretariat homes are built to order, so buyers can personalize them, and the first residents were expected to move in next spring.
If you're a downsizer, the choice comes down to whether an elevator and a rooftop terrace on the north side are worth more to you than a detached house, a yard of your own and a lower starting price on the south side.
Late July gave the first read on that bet
FHS released its first 14 homes in December 2025: seven Brownstones, four Griswold Townhomes and three Carriage Homes. It also took reservations on another 44 residences, including future Stinson, Beal Street and Central Park homes. About eight months later, Herkowitz told the Free Press, "We have three sales in the first phase, which is 14 units, and three additional reservations on top of that." He said the first purchaser would move in the following week.
In the same report, Toll Brothers director of sales Tracy Shinneman said the first residents moved into the Churchill Collection in 2025. More than 20 homeowners had since closed in the Churchill and Palomino collections, with Cloverleaf move-ins expected later in 2026. She said sales had met the company's expectations, and Toll projects its side will be finished in 2028.
The two counts don't measure the same thing. One counts sales in a single 14-home release, and the other counts closings across collections that began delivering a year earlier. The direction is still clear. As of late July, the sub-$700,000 condo rungs were turning into closed sales, and the $1 million-plus rungs were still finding their buyers. The agent quoted above put it plainly: "I think we're going to have to grow into some of those price points."
We couldn't find any public update on The Downs' sales pace published after August 1, 2026, so the late-July figures are the latest available. They also don't fill in the citywide picture. Realcomp's local-geography statistics are offered through MarketStats, its tool for MLS subscribers, and we didn't find a public 2026 Northville median to compare these prices against.
For you as a buyer, this matters in practical terms. When a builder has unsold homes in a released phase, it is usually more open to talking about lot choice, upgrades or timing. When a collection is closing steadily, you may have less room to negotiate on its quick move-in homes. Neither builder has published incentives, so ask each sales office directly.
Costs that neither price sheet shows yet
Neither builder posts its association dues. The FHS site says its association covers professional landscaping, snow removal and exterior care. It gives no monthly or annual figure. We found no numeric HOA fee on the Toll Brothers collection pages either. On an attached home with elevators and shared exteriors, monthly dues can change the real gap between rungs a lot. Get the number in writing before comparing a $989,000 Carriage Home to a $939,995 Secretariat home.
The other cost is time. When the full project is done, sometime in 2029 or 2030 if things go according to plan, it will hold 428 housing units, nearly 18,000 square feet of neighborhood retail, and parks. The 178-unit apartment building on the north side was in early construction in July. Its apartments are expected in 2027, with projected average rents of about $3,600. River Park opened on June 17, 2026, according to Crain's Detroit Business. The City of Northville's August 2026 newsletter said the 1.25-acre Central Park was still taking shape and should be finished in late fall.
So if you buy north of Beal today, you'll likely live next to active construction for several years, possibly longer than a Toll buyer near the end of that side's 2028 schedule. The streetscape and the retail you're paying to be near will fill in over time.
What to ask at each sales office
- What are the monthly HOA dues, and what exactly do they cover? Are roofs, elevators and rooftop terraces maintained by the association or by the owner?
- For Toll Brothers Quick Move-In homes, which finishes and options are already included in the posted price, and when is the home ready?
- For FHS homes, which units in the first 14-home phase are still available, and when will Beal Street, The Stinson and Towns on Central Park be priced and released?
- What construction is planned near the specific lot or unit you're considering, and on what schedule?
- Which rungs have recent closings you can use as comparables for appraisal and future resale?
The last question matters most at the top of the ladder. The FHS developer acknowledges there are few local comparables for its product, and an appraisal or a future resale will depend on whatever sales accumulate there over the next few years.
If you're deciding between a Carriage Home and a Secretariat build, or wondering what your current Northville home would bring as you downsize into The Downs, Jay Gingell can walk you through both builders' paperwork line by line. Let's connect. Request a free home valuation so you know exactly what you're working with before you visit either sales office.
