Auburn's commercial and residential development continues at 'unprecedented' rate
Courtesy / E. Cousens
The city of Auburn is seeing unprecedented growth in commercial and residential development. Seen here under construction is a new location for Evergreen Subaru at a former Best Buy location that being expanded and improved. The general contractor is Gendron & Gendron.
Auburn city officials said Tuesday there's been "unprecedented" growth in development across its real estate market, including categories such as warehouse, residential, market rate multi-family and manufacturing.
Between February and June of this year, Auburn reported that 288,212 square feet of new space had already been permitted for construction, according to a news release.
The city expects the momentum to continue, due to recent planning board approvals totaling $55.8 million in new structures and 269,000 square feet of space, plus two solar projects totaling $34 million in investment and 80 acres of new panels. The projects are ready for permitting over the next six months.
“These numbers are incredible,” Eric Cousens, deputy director of economic and community development, said in the release. “Everything we are doing right now will have a direct, positive impact on tax revenues and investment that will hit the books in April 2021.”
With $1 million in recently approved downtown development incentives, community development block grant incentives, a federally designated opportunity zone and two new riverfront development sites going to market, the city said it anticipates a record-setting year for downtown development.
Despite the pandemic, one developer shared that optimism.
“It is exciting to see how much development has occurred in Auburn over the last year,” Mike Gotto, from Stoneybrook Land Use Inc., said in the release. “I am not surprised, given how easy it is to work with city staff while preparing our applications. The review process is streamlined, timely and very predictable. This makes it easy to keep clients informed and to establish reasonable schedules for their project approvals.”
In many parts of the the state, permitting can take days if not months, according to Mayor Jason Levesque.
He added, “Auburn will continue to see smart and diverse investments in a variety of categories. We have been preparing for the influx of development, businesses, and new residents. Based on the first half of 2020, Auburn is on pace to shatter past development records.”
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