Housing Headlines

SPRINGFIELD --- Investigators are looking into the cause of six overnight fires that damaged five properties in a quarter-mile radius in the Liberty Heights neighborhood. Most of the properties were abandoned and investigators are checking on the ownership status of each property.

LOWELL --- The City Council recently voted to sell a former fire station to JTL Realty for the creation of three or four affordable housing units. The former Fourth Street Fire Station will be renovated to maintain the historic character of the building but upgrading will to take place to make the building Energy star certified. The units will be affordable to households earning at or below 50 percent of the area median income (AMI).

MELROSE --- Construction is set to begin on the redevelopment of the former Boston Rubber Shoe mill site on Washington Street this summer. The Stone Place development will consist of the redevelopment of two existing factory buildings and the new construction of four buildings. When completed, the complex will consist of 300 rental units, 27 of which will be designated as affordable.

HINGHAM --- The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) recently voted to award $250,000 to help a non-profit build six units of affordable housing for homeless veterans. The two-story Fort Hill Veterans Supportive Housing will also receive $50,000 in funding from the Hingham Affordable Housing Trust. The earliest the project would open would be the fall of 2011.

CHELMSFORD --- Neighbors are voicing concern over the size of a proposed affordable housing development for veterans of the armed services, even though the housing authority director is insisting that plans have not been finalized and the community will be involved in determining what type of building will go on what was formerly a single-family lot.

WORCESTER --- Leggat McCall Properties LLC says it will purchase the downtown CitySquare project by June and begin construction on a seven-story office building that is expected to be the new Worcester office for Unum Group, a disability insurer. A 20-acre redevelopment project on the site of the former Worcester Common Outlets mall, CitySquare was purchased in 2004 by Berkeley Investments but the Boston development company never moved forward on its plans to tear down the mall and build housing, offices and stores.