🔒Avesta plans to add 76 affordable apartments to downtown Portland

Avesta Housing, headquartered in Portland, is developing two housing projects in the city, the Dashaway and the Prime, which will add a total of 76 units to the Bayside neighborhood. The Dashaway will replace buildings at 15-19 Cedar St. with a five-story complex containing 29 apartments, targeted to households earning between 50% and 60% of the area median income.

The Boys & Girls Club of Southern Maine donated the property to Avesta, to help the club comply with the city’s Housing Preservation and Replacement Ordinance, as it plans an expansion to its own building on nearby Cumberland Avenue. The ordinance requires property owners and developers who demolish or convert existing dwelling units to replace them with an equal number of homes or pay a fee — of $50,000 per unit lost — into the city’s housing trust fund. The club plans to remove two buildings containing 24 housing units on its property at 277 Cumberland Ave. with non-residential program space. Avesta’s Director of Real Estate Development John Egan clarified, “The clubhouse expansion is an entirely different project than the Avesta project. It happens to be just up the street, but it is not connected physically nor through any legal means to the Avesta housing project.” Avesta's complex on Cedar Street will actually create five additional units, 29 in all, and all will be deed-restricted as affordable housing for 45 years. Twenty-one of the units will have two bedrooms, four will be one-bedroom units, and four are planned as studio apartments. Nine of the apartments are designed as accessible. The Dashaway will have community space, a common kitchen, staff and resident meeting space, indoor bike storage and on-site laundry. The design for the building, by Portland’s Invivid Architecture, maximizes energy efficiency. The second Avesta project is just a block away at 197 Oxford St. The Prime is a four-story, 37,000 square-foot complex with 47 affordable apartments for individuals and families earning 60% or less of the area median income. “The development maximizes the units possible in a compact urban space and meets the urgent need to add housing in a growing downtown area,” said Egan, “while not requiring variances that may run counter to neighborhood character.” The building will feature a community room, a secure lobby and tenant laundry facilities. It will also prioritize energy efficiency and include indoor air quality and water-conserving fixtures. Nine of the apartments will be accessible for residents living with disabilities. CWS Architecture & Interior Design, based in Scarborough, is the creative team on the project. Both the Prime and the Dashaway have received approvals from the city of Portland, and construction timelines are in development. Work on the projects is anticipated to start within the next year, Egan told Mainebiz.