Town Unveils Plans For Three New Mid-Island Housing Developments

The Affordable Housing Trust (AHT) voted in favor of a plan to create 57 housing units across three sites at its meeting on Tuesday, offering its support to a $46.3 million project that would be one of the largest low-cost housing proposals the Trust has ever endorsed.

The town’s contribution is expected to be around $18.84 million, though soaring construction prices and the impact of highly unpredictable tariffs make the exact numbers difficult to gauge so early in the process. The funding would require final approval from the Select Board.

Of the 57 units, 28 would be spread across four buildings on Orange Street, another 12 are slated for Bartlett Road, and the remaining 17 would be part of a proposed senior community on Vesper Lane intended for older adults that will also include significant solar panelling. Thirty-five of the units will be one-bedrooms, 18 will be two-bedrooms, and the remaining four, all on Orange Street, will be three-bedroom units. The Orange Street plan also includes a bus turnoff with a shelter.

Affirmative Investments, the affordable housing-focused finance and development firm behind the plan, brought two proposals to develop the three sites to the Trust. One was the workforce housing proposal the Trust ultimately backed, which targets mainly residents making between 80 and 120 percent of Nantucket’s area median income (AMI). 

Affirmative Investments was the only respondent to the town's request for proposals (RFP) to develop the three sites.

The other, which relied more heavily on federal funding, was a low-income housing tax credit project aimed primarily at residents making under 80 percent AMI. This proposal would have been much cheaper for the town, slashing its costs to around $11.82 million.

But both the AHT and the Evaluation Committee for Affordable Housing Development, which reviewed the proposals and offered a recommendation to the Trust, preferred the workforce housing plan, in large part because of its focus on the so-called “missing middle” of residents who make more than 80 percent AMI but still struggle to afford housing.

“I feel very strongly that we should be focusing on as high a percentage of AMI as we can. I think that group has not been as well served,” AHT vice chair Penny Dey said. “It's clear that workforce housing is, in my view, the more responsible route to go here.”

The other advantage of the workforce housing proposal is the timeline.

Under the workforce housing plan, initial occupancy for the Orange Street and Bartlett Road properties is May 2028, while initial occupancy for the Vesper Lane units is July 2029. The low-income housing tax credit plan would have set that timeline back significantly, with initial occupancy for Orange Street and Bartlett Road not projected until May 2028 and initial occupancy for Vesper Lane delayed until December 2029.

The AHT has purchased several mid-island properties that have remained empty for years, as proposals have floundered and timelines have dragged on. Last year, the town had to reject the lone bid it received to develop the Orange Street property for affordable housing. While Tuesday’s vote won’t lead to a developer breaking ground immediately, it is a step towards changing that paradigm.

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. Last April, the Trust and the Nantucket Land Bank joined forces to buy an adjacent vacant lot at 141 Orange Street for $1.7 million.

The land on Vesper Lane was acquired by the Trust in a land swap with Nantucket Cottage Hospital back in 2023. The property at 16 Vesper Lane, which had been owned by the hospital, was deeded to the Trust in exchange for the adjacent parcel at 18 Vesper Lane. The hospital sent an undisclosed sum of money to the town as part of the deal to account for the fact that the property it is getting is slightly larger. The town had acquired 18 Vesper Lane from UMass Boston in May 2021 for $2.6 million. The sale occurred only after special legislation authorizing the sale of the state-owned UMass property was approved by the Massachusetts legislature and signed by former Governor Charlie Baker.

The Trust purchased the three-quarter-acre lot at 12 and 12R Bartlett Road in February 2022 for $2.75 million, and has remained vacant and unused since then.