Housing Headlines

WILLIAMSTOWN --- David Traggorth of Mitchell Properties told selectmen recently that construction at Cable Mills has resumed full tilt and he expects that it will be ready for residents by December 2015. Efforts to renovate the 140-year-old building were first initialized by Keen Development, but the project stalled with the death of President Robert Kuehn in 2006. Mitchell Properties of Boston purchased the 9-acre site in 2007, but the financial crisis made it difficult for the project to secure financing until recently.

AUBURN --- Town meeting members have voted 98-2 to appropriate $2.86 million and exercise its right of first refusal to purchase 50 acres of farmland that would otherwise be sold to a developer who plans to build 25 single-family homes and an apartment complex.

WESTPORT --- The Westport Board of Selectmen has voted to allow the developers of the proposed Noquochoke Village affordable housing development more time to seek state funding and will also allow the developer to make more of the units affordable.

SHREWSBURY --- After announcing this past summer it was seeking "friendly" 40B proposals from developers, selectmen have voted to move forward in negotiations with a developer's plan to build 150 over-55 housing units and a commercial development, as well as a one-time mitigation payment to the town of $450,000.

BOSTON --- A former bread factory site in Uphams Corner that was once targeted to become an municipal storage yard is now being sought by three developers who propose to turn the property into a mixed-use site and capitalize on its location near the new Fairmount commuter line.

NORTHAMPTON --- The planning board is expected to hear about HAPHousing's plans to buy and demolish Northampton Lodging and replace it with a five-story apartment building with 48 affordable and 24 market-rate apartments. The existing building is a longtime single-room lodging house with 58 units.