Big Decision Looms On Town-Owned Properties Slated For Affordable Housing That Have Been Sitting Vacant

Slow-moving affordable housing projects on Orange Street, Bartlett Road, and Vesper Lane are one step closer to construction, but before any work can begin, the town - which is funding the projects - has a major decision to make.

In September of 2025, the town awarded the consulting firm Affirmative Investments a contract to develop 40 units of workforce housing at 135 and 137 Orange Street and 12 and 12R Bartlett Road, followed by 17 units of affordable senior housing at 16 Vesper Lane.

Then a state program that Affirmative Investments was counting on for $5 million in funding was not renewed, leaving the consulting firm scrambling for alternatives. Other state and federal funds have been hard to come by, but Affirmative Investments has found what it calls non-profit, patient-equity sources with long-term borrowing horizons. But before these funders will commit resources, the town must commit its own funding to the project.

To complete the workforce housing portion of the project as it was initially designed, the town will have to commit $15.9 million. That’s the same amount that Affirmative Investments asked for in 2025, though the exact structure of the funding will be different because of the involvement of the patient-equity funders. The developers were able to make up the gap left by the loss of state funding using private funds.

At an Affordable Housing Trust meeting last Tuesday and a Select Board meeting last Wednesday, Affirmative Investments also presented two alternatives: $12.1 million for 57 units of mixed-income housing, or $8.5 million for 57 units of low-income housing. The alternatives would reduce the income caps for eligibility of the prospective tenants, targeting more Nantucket residents at lower income levels. Both alternatives would cover all three sites and would come with a greater degree of state control and oversight. They would also take longer to develop.

At this point, the Affordable Housing Trust and Select Board are uncertain which alternative to support.

“It’s a complicated puzzle,” Select Board and Affordable Housing Trust member Brooke Mohr said.

At a Select Board planning retreat on Tuesday, the majority of the Select Board’s membership called for a temporary halt to all stand-alone warrant articles seeking debt overrides to finance affordable housing projects, citing concerns about cost and the town’s large debt burden.

The Orange Street, Bartlett Road, and Vesper Lane projects do not need stand-alone Town Meeting articles, as they will be financed by an existing override that voters approved to fund the Affordable Housing Trust in 2023. That seemed to mollify some Select Board members on Wednesday.

“I would support [the workforce housing option] because I think that is the best option for the island, with the amount of money that most people make here, and it’s done the quickest, and it gives us the most flexibility,” Select Board member Bob DeCosta said. “If the money is in place, and they don’t have to go for additional borrowing, and it’s already going to be covered under what you’ve already borrowed, and it’s already on the tax bill, that would be my first choice.”

The two lots at 135 and 137 Orange Street were acquired by the town's Affordable Housing Trust in 2020 for $3.5 million, the first of its acquisitions under the so-called "Neighborhood First" initiative. In April 2022, the Trust and the Nantucket Land Bank joined forces to buy an adjacent vacant lot at 141 Orange Street for $1.7 million. In 2021, the Trust purchased the lots on Bartlett Road for 2.75 million, and acquired the Vesper Lane lot from UMass for $2.6 million, later swapping it for an adjacent property owned by Nantucket Cottage Hospital.

All three have remained vacant for years as the town's efforts to develop them have hit numerous snags and delays.