Housing Headlines

SOMERVILLE --- Plans by the Somerville Housing Authority and the Redgate real estate firm to renovate 216 public housing units and add market-rate units to the site are in question as Redgate tries to figure out the financing for the market-rate portion after a state-approved home rule petition included a requirement that prevailing wages be paid for both parts of the project. As a public-private partnership, the Clarendon project planned to pay its workers prevailing wage on the public portion but not the private portion, overseen by Redgate.

BROCKTON --- Against the wishes of its owner, who still hopes to make a development bid, the Brockton Redevelopment Authority has seized the eight-story downtown Furniture Building and has transferred it to Concord Square Development, which has proposed to redevelop the city's tallest building into 52 apartments that will be situated right across the street from the downtown commuter rail station.

BARNSTABLE --- The Town of Falmouth stands to lose an affordable homeownership unit after Barnstable Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fishman denied its motion to stop the auction of an affordable home that is going through foreclosure. The property has a deed restriction that is supposed to ensure that the property remain affordable when it is refinanced with a new loan, the judge ruled that the default involved the modification of the original loan. “While there has been a modification of the original mortgage, which enabled the owner to remain in the property for an additional 16 months before a subsequent default, said modification did not supersede or replace the original mortgage or promissory note,” Fishman wrote.

UXBRIDGE --- In light of a possible $600,000 in additional costs, the nonprofit team developing the historic wooden 145-year-old Blanchard School into 25 affordable apartments has asked the town for a waiver of $33,000 or 50 percent of the cost of connecting the project to the town's sewer system. (Note: MHP is the long-term lender for this project).

WBUR's Simon Rios posts a a clear-eyed, talk-to-all-sides postmortem on why Governor Charlie Baker's Housing Choice simple-majority measure stalled in the Legislature & what supporters hope to do to revive it.

QUINCY --- Residents in a small residential neighborhood northeast of Quincy Center are expressing their displeasure with two housing proposals - a 51-unit plan by developer Stephen Niosi and a 46-unit condominium proposal by George Lane on Spear St. near the McGrath Highway. “If someone wanted to build a 12-unit townhouse complex, that would be out of character,” resident Darren Murphy said. “This is from outer space.”