Lee — With most of Berkshire County struggling with a deficit in affordable housing, the Lee Select Board unanimously committed $100,000 to the second phase of its multi-use Eagle Mill project to push forward 44 residential units reserved for qualifying low-income households. Chair Gordon Bailey was off the dais.
The February 18 action followed a presentation by Hearthway CEO Eileen Peltier and Hearthway Director of Real Estate Development Matt Kropke who are partnering with Larkin Development on the project.
Click here to view the Hearthway PowerPoint presentation.
The Eagle Mill Redevelopment Project aims to transform an 1808 former paper mill, the Eagle Mill building, into affordable-housing units with commercial space on its 8.4 acres abutting the Housatonic River. The West Center Street mill shut down in 2008, and the efforts to redevelop the tract have been in the works for almost a decade.
Phase 2 of the project adds 20 workforce-housing units geared towards households earning up to 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI); 16 Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) units aimed at households earning less than 60 percent of AMI; and eight LIHTC units aimed at households earning less than 30 percent of AMI. In comparison, the project’s first phase added 20 units (up to 100 percent of AMI as opposed to Phase 2’s 80 percent), 28 units, and eight units within those categories, respectively.
This second phase is apportioned by 15 one-bedroom units, 24 two-bedroom units, and five three-bedroom units. Keeping those numbers in perspective, Phase 1 added 24 units, 24 units, and eight units within those categories, respectively.
Community areas at Phase 2’s four-story wood-framed complex will include a mail room, bike-storage area, and laundry room.
Hearthway is applying for a second round of state funding for the community next week, and Peltier and Kropke requested the funds to show Lee’s support for the project in conjunction with that application. “We were very pleased to be invited into this funding round,” Peltier said. “It is highly competitive, as you can imagine. The whole state is experiencing significant challenges around housing.”
Should the group lose this funding round, Peltier said other rounds would be available for application submissions.
Once the project is permitted, state density payments in the amount of $132,000 will go back to the town, with a portion of those monies used to offset the $100,000 expenditure approved, Town Administrator Christopher Brittain said. “It wouldn’t be that we are raising or appropriating this [expenditure] with taxes,” he said. “We would be taking some of that density payment and putting it back into the project.”
According to Peltier, that $100,000 check can be remitted from the town towards the end of the completion of the second phase’s construction, estimated to be two to three years out.
“What’s really important at this stage of the game is demonstrating support from the local community, the town of Lee,” Kropke said of the Phase 2 state application submission.
Although the Select Board signed a letter of support for the project on February 4, that correspondence did not specify the amount the town would contribute.
With its 56 units, Phase 1 of the project is set for completion this December, Kropke said, and construction on Phase 2 of the project is slated to begin next year, with a 2027 completion date should the state funding be approved.
Peltier said the first phase’s structure intentionally appears in the project drawings to be similar to a brick building but will actually be two-color Hardiplank, or siding, to mimic the historical mill that was formerly on the site. According to Kropke, the units won’t include natural gas but instead run on electric and solar energy, a combination that Peltier said was “considered the highest [green] standard they can do in a multifamily building like this.” “It’s important for Mother Earth but it’s also—these buildings can be costly to operate, and this will certainly help with the operational costs,” she said.
Hearthway plans to begin accepting applications from prospective tenants of the project’s first phase about 60 days before its Certificate of Occupancy is delivered, or around October 1, Peltier said. A November lottery for tenants is proposed, she said, with December 1 serving as the earliest date for moving in.
