CLEVELAND, Ohio - A local builder aims to start construction in the spring on two tiny houses on Cleveland's west side, in a project that might offer a template for modest - and relatively affordable - new homes in popular city neighborhoods.

Sutton Development Group will build the houses, each 583 square feet. Construction is scheduled to wrap up by mid-June. The houses could be listed for sale at $125,000 to $150,000 each.

A collaboration between a neighborhood nonprofit, Citizens Bank and Sutton, the houses will be the first such freestanding, permanent, pint-sized dwellings built in the city at a time when TV shows like "Tiny House Hunters" have helped create a cult following for smaller-than-average living.

The nonprofit Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization announced last year that it had teamed up with Citizens on a tiny-house experiment. The bank donated $140,000 for marketing, design work and construction of a single house, which Detroit Shoreway will own, show off and eventually sell.

Keith Sutton, who has built more traditional homes in Cleveland for years, signed on to construct the Citizens house and a second one next door. He's getting the land from Detroit Shoreway, but he'll try to finance, build and sell that second house like he would any other.

If the model works, he's hoping to replicate it elsewhere in the neighborhood. And he's already contemplating at least one tiny-house project in Tremont, where lots are hard to find and rising prices have shut some buyers out of the market.

"The whole idea of tiny houses is something that I'm seriously, seriously smitten with," said Sutton, who is selling off his final townhouses at the Bergen Village and Starkweather Place developments in Tremont.

Sutton, Citizens and the Detroit Shoreway group have scheduled an open house for Wednesday evening to show off designs for the homes. The event will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Urban Community School on Lorain Avenue.

The site plan for the Detroit Shoreway tiny house project shows how both houses will fit onto a vacant and split lot at West 58th Street and Pear Avenue.

Though it's possible to find old shotgun houses and bitty bungalows in the city, Cleveland's zoning code sets the minimum size of a new single-family home at 950 square feet. The city's Board of Zoning Appeals approved a handful of variances, related to house size, lot size and parking configuration, for the West 58th Street site.

Any builder considering a tiny-house project would have to jump through similar hoops, unless the city makes broader changes to its code. City planners are talking about modernizing the zoning code to encourage growth and redevelopment.

The houses that Sutton and Detroit Shoreway have in mind aren't the roving residences on wheels that you see on television. Designed by City Architecture, they will sit on permanent foundations, tied into the sewer system and utilities. That's one reason the pricing might sound high to frequent viewers of HGTV.

Each of the Cleveland houses will include a loft, two first-floor bedrooms, one bathroom, built-in furniture and a kitchen with regular-size appliances and granite countertops. The small lots each have space for a parking pad, a shed and a yard.

"We're not skimping," said Adam Davenport, project and operations manager for the Detroit Shoreway nonprofit group. "You're getting a normal house. You're just getting it shrunk down."

Both houses will meet green-building standards, which the city requires in exchange for granting 15 years of property-tax abatement on new construction. The annual heating-and-cooling bills could be less than $400, Sutton predicted. A buyer with a $10,000 down payment might be facing a $700 monthly mortgage payment.

"The tiny house experiment follows a growing movement across the nation in which people are downsizing to smaller, simplified, sustainable living, often at a fraction of what typical homes can cost to own and maintain," Joe DiRocco, the Ohio president for Rhode Island-based Citizens, said in a written statement.

Floor plans show the likely layout for the tiny houses planned in Cleveland's Detroit Shoreway neighborhood. There could be minor variations between the two houses.

Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone also highlighted the energy-saving features of the houses, which will be located in an area known as the EcoVillage.

"Not everyone needs a big house," Zone said in a written statement. "I am confident there will be a market for tiny homes in Cleveland."

So far, Davenport has heard from young professionals, aging baby boomers, contractors and other builders who are intrigued by the concept.

Sutton, who had visions of building tiny houses in Tremont before the housing bust, clearly is sold. If the Detroit Shoreway project is successful, he hopes banks will be open to financing more tiny-house deals for both builders and buyers.

"A lot of unsuitable lots for traditional construction would be well-suited to this type of home," Sutton said. "This house lends itself really well to infill housing, which is a really important concept for what the city needs. ... Any time there's a new home being built in any neighborhood. I think it elevates the neighborhood. It's an investment in Cleveland. We've had enough people move out. We need to bring people back."