Housing Headlines

ATTLEBORO -- The nonprofit Retirement Housing Foundation and The Schochet Companies have purchased and will preserve the affordability of Hillcrest Acres Apartments, a 100-unit of mixed-income development that was originally funded under a federal housing program known as Section 236. The development partnership acquired the property with an $8.4 million loan from the state's Community Development Economic Assistance Corp. and will seek further financing to stabilize and make repairs on the property.

WORCESTER --- A New York City development group has reached a tentative agreement to purchase the 114-year-old Commerce Building, a nine-story Main St. building hailed as the downtown's first "skyscraper." City Manager Edward Augustus said SilverBrick Group LLC is looking to invest over $54 million to create a mixed-use projecct with 312 units of market rate housing. The developers are seeking tax exemptions from the city and tax credits from the state.

LAWRENCE --- A longtime social service nonprofit is taking its first plunge into affordable housing development as the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council (GLCAC) is breaking ground this month on a 39-unit affordable housing project. GLCAC was picked by the city to develop the 19th century downtown building because "we were closest to what the city had requested," said CEO Evelyn Friedman, former director of housing for the City of Boston and executive director of Nuestra Comunidad, a Roxbury-based housing nonprofit.

FALMOUTH ---Acting to reach a stated goal and to create zoning for a specific site, the Planning Board has created a subcomittee to draft a multifamily zoning bylaw. The board has had a goal of creating more workforce housing and a multifamily housing bylaw is needed to implement a mixed-use walkable village proposal for the Falmouth Plaza site.

AMHERST --- The Town Council has voted 9-4 to recommend that the Zoning Board of Appeals include a local preference provision when it issues a Ch. 40B comprehensive land use permit to the Valley Community Development Corp. for its $5 million 28-unit affordable single-room occupancy proposal at 132 Northampton Road.

BOSTON --- Scores of residents took to Massachusetts Avenue in Boston one night in early September to call for renewed efforts by state and local officials to deal with increasing amounts of homelessness and drug use in the South End, Melnea Cass Boulevard and surrounding streets.