Housing Headlines

TEWKSBURY --- Construction recently resumed on the Village Green 40B affordable housing project, after the site's developer managed to secure financing from the state. The complex will feature 56 rental units, 12 of which will be designated as affordable. The revised timeline calls for the project is to be completed around July 2009.

EDGARTOWN --- The Morgan Woods development, the largest affordable rental housing development on Martha's Vineyard, was designed as a mixed-income development to help working families find year-round housing in local communities. Now, the Martha's Vineyard Times reports, families have been forced to move out of the complex and several units sit empty on the site, because the locked-in unit prices allow no flexibility to entice tenants into renting.

GROVELAND --- In response to community feedback, Coming Home Inc. has decided not to demolish two buildings and will instead rehabilitate the former St. Patrick's Church and the adjacent Richdale store property into 13 rental units affordable to families between 30 and 80 percent of the area median income. For a family of four, incomes would range from around $24,200 for 30 percent AMI to $61,500 for 80 percent AMI.

LENOX --- Robert Akroyd of Greylock Design Associates recently announced that he and his team are proposing to construct a mixed-use development on the site of Brushwood Farms. The existing buildings on the site will be razed and a hotel, office space, retail space and 134 housing units will be built with a portion of those units designated as affordable. Akroyd expects to present a packet of information to the town and begin the permitting process in April.

READING --- Oaktree Development recently proposed the possibility of purchasing Atlantic Food Store on Haven Street with plans to convert the building into a mixed-use development. The development would consist of one level of shops with 49 "green" condominiums, one- and two-bedroom units, on the other three floors. More details about the project will be presented at a public meeting held by the Community Planning and Development Commission (CPDC) on Monday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the senior center.

BOSTON --- The state Department of Housing and Community Development today released a report that analyzes current housing market fundamentals and what the likely demand for housing will be through 2012. Researched by the University of Massachusetts' Donahue Institute, the report was commissioned to "ensure that we are building housing that will boost our economy and help attract new jobs and businesses to Massachusetts," said Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Tina Brooks. To read more about this report, click the title of this summary.