Housing Headlines

TOWNSEND --- RCAP Solutions recently celebrated the groundbreaking of 36 units of affordable senior housing adjacent to a senior housing complex the developer built 21 years ago. The new Townsend Woods complex received $5.5 million in funding from the federal government and $1 million from state funding sources. Construction is expected to be completed in the spring of 2011.

NEWTON --- Aldermen are reviewing a plan to build a supermarket, 92 apartments and a 300-car parking garage at the Newton Centre fire station site. Under the current proposal, which is smaller than the 114-unit plan floated last year, the developer would have to build the city new fire buildings in exchange for the rights to the land. The plan includes 74 one-bedroom and 18 two-bedroom units, for a total of 92.

FALL RIVER --- The Fall River YMCA says it cannot go forward with its $11 million plan to renovate its downtown facility after the city pulled back on a previous commimtent to provide $1.5 million in federal HOME funds to help support the housing portion of the project, which called for the renovation of the third and fourth floors into 42 units of affordable rental housing.

EAST BOSTON --- The Boston Redevelopment Authority recently approved a mixed-used residential development on the waterfront that will include residential units, a restaurant, a recreational marina and water taxi landing. An existing nine-story building will be renovated to include 165 residential units and a proposed six-story building will contain 59 residential units or 106 hotel/extended stay rooms. Construction is expected to begin sometime in 2012.

SHREWSBURY --- Town meeting last night lifted a nearly 30-year cap on the number of units that can go into an assisted-living complex. The town limited the number to 60 in the 1980s after the 233-unit South Gate was built and later granted a variance so that a 64-unit facility could be built. In support of the change, Town Manager Daniel J. Morgado said South Gate is the third largest taxpayer in town, that facility with 100 to 120 units is standard and a facility that size would generate about $120,000 in annual tax revenue.

SPRINGFIELD --- Completed mortgage foreclosures in Hampden County are up 49.13 percent this year, according to the Warren Group. The real estate data service also calculated that lenders are now taking an average of 138 days to move properties through the forclosure process, compared to 234 days in 2008. Jennifer Kinsman, foreclosure prevention manager at Springfield's HAP Inc. said lenders had been holding off on foreclosures because the homes couldn't have been sold but that now "it looks like some of the lenders are following through."