Housing Headlines

WEST SPRINGFIELD --- This city's housing authority is one of seven in the state to receive funds for energy improvements and upgrades. West Springfield is getting $660,730 of the $4.49 million in recovery funds allocated. Also receiving funds were Everett ($2 million); Millbury ($156,030); Nahant ($66,715); Natick ($515,160); Northampton ($492,000); Peabody ($454,075) and Westborough ($88,065).

HOLYOKE --- In an example of how abandoned properties can lead to de-stabilizing neighborhoods, a suspicious fire in a vacant apartment building on South East Street prompted about a dozen nearby residents to evacuate their homes.

EASTHAMPTON --- In an attempt to attract affordable housing developers and build interest in the redevelopment of two vacant mill complexes, the city council last week OK'd the creation of two smart growth overlay districts. (Subscription may be required to read this story).

FRAMINGHAM --- The Residences at Dennison Triangle, a former downtown factory converted into condominiums, sold for $10 million at an April 27 public auction as part of foreclosure proceedings. The property was purchased by Jeffrey Libert and his associates, who form Dennison Bishop LLC of Newton. Last year, this group assumed the project's construction loan after the original developer, Framingham 4, had defaulted.

BOSTON --- Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell says the Rose Kennedy Greenway has a random feel, is devoid of people and feels the solution is to make it a neighborhood with housing, like they do in Paris where they always surround a new park with places for people to live.

LOWELL --- The Lowell Plan, a nonprofit corporation responsible for charting the city's future, has hired a leading New Urbanist planning firm, Jeff Speck and Associates, to revamp its downtown.