While prices for single-family homes in Maine continue to soar, there’s also a growing need for apartments, multifamily units and other housing options. Developers and builders are working to keep up.
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Maine’s shortage of housing has been a hot topic in the past 18 months. With the state’s median home price soaring — to $315,000, as of July’s numbers — and new records continuing to be set, the demand for housing has never been greater.
Much of the recent demand for housing has been driven by out-of-state buyers looking for single-family homes. But the need for apartments and multifamily homes, particularly affordable homes, continues unabated.
This year through July in Maine, permits for 65 multifamily structures have been approved — for a total of 927 units, according to the U.S. Census. That far outpaces all of 2020, when 43 structures were approved for a total of 741 housing units. In New England, only Massachusetts has issued more permits for multifamily housing in the past 19 months.
Here is just a sampling of multifamily housing projects in the works.
- In South Portland, on Clarks Pond Parkway, PM Construction is building the next phase of the Latitude complex, which features one- and two-bedroom apartments. In all, the property will have 256 market-rate apartments. Bar Harbor Bank & Trust financed the project. The developer is Vincent Maietta.
- Elsewhere in South Portland, on the site of a former church at 611 Main St. (U.S. Route 1), Zachau Construction has an apartment building in the final stages of construction. The building also includes ground-floor retail, which is being leased by Malone Commercial Brokers. The developer is South Portland Housing Development Corp. The 49,000-square-foot building will have 42 affordable housing units.
- In Freeport, the Residences at Crosstree, on Desert Road, will offer what promises to be one of the largest multi-family housing developments there in recent memory. It will have 144 units in six buildings. The land was formerly owned by L.L.Bean Inc. It is being developed by West Hartford, Conn.-based Simon Konover Co., Providence, R.I.-based KGI Properties and Devine Capital.
Kudos from developer of Falmouth commercial buildings
Developer Jonathan Cohen reports that the last piece of steel is in place on two buildings of roughly 60,000 square feet on U.S. Route 1 in Falmouth.
General contractor for the two buildings, which bookend the Falmouth Shopping Center, is the Penobscot Co.
Other partners include Capone Iron, Arc Erecting, Machias Savings Bank, Archetype Architects, Sitewerx, Gorrill Palmer, Summit Geotechnics, S.W. Cole, Sargent Electric, Jaiden, Casper Electric, Ranor Mechanical, Metro Walls, AD&W, A&M Roofing, N. S. Giles, CSI and Compass Commercial Brokers.
Tenants include the Sicilian Table, Lanman & Rayne and Puritan Medical Products Co. filling the 261 U.S. Route 1 building. Chase Bank will be a key tenant at 241 U.S. Route 1.
