Developer plans up to 750 workforce apartments for Lewiston, Augusta, Biddeford

Photo / Maureen Milliken The former Pineland Lumber site at 10 Avon St. in Lewiston may be developed into a 245-unit apartment complex.

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By Maureen Milliken

Massachusetts developer Saxon Partners is in the early stages of apartment projects in Lewiston, Augusta and Biddeford that could add nearly 750 units of workforce housing in those cities.

The developer, based in Hingham, Mass, recently launched a program that focuses on building workforce hosing near locations near hospitals,and the three Maine locations fit the bill.

Most apartment development in the last 10 or 15 years has been focused on tenants with higher incomes, and in downtown centers, Tom Greco, a director at Saxon, told Mainebiz this week. Saxon's apartment developments are aimed at those in the workforce who may not want to own a house and can't afford market rate rents. The developments will have studio and one-bedroom apartments aimed at young professionals.

"If you look where we're located, we're near large employers," he said. He said the firm considered building in Portland, but it was too expensive, and also considered Bangor, but settled on the three cities. All have downtowns that are going through a revitalization, hospitals and aging housing stock that makes it tough for those in the workforce to find housing.

The firm's website says its new multi-family development program is "designed to provide attractive workforce housing adjacent in underserved markets across the country, with an initial footprint spanning from Maine to Florida and from Maryland to Kansas." Saxon earlier this year proposed a 250-unit complex in Lebanon, N.H., near Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and a 275-unit proposal is underway in Merrillville, Ind., among others.

The firm opened in 1998, and since then has completed half a billion dollars of real estate transactions and, along with its affiliates, owns or manages properties with a value in excess of $250 million, it says.

The 245-apartment Lewiston complex is planned for 6.5 acres along the Androscoggin River on the former Pineland Lumber site, which has been vacant Hammond Lumber acquired the business in 2010. The site is blocks from Central Maine Medical Center, St. Mary's Medical Center and downtown.

In Augusta, 245 apartment units are planned for the north end of the city on Civic Center Drive, a site that's now rolling former farmland. It's within two miles of MaineGeneral hospital, close to other medical businesses and state offices, and less than a mile and a half from the University of Maine at Augusta. The planned complex is close to exits 112 and 113 of Interstate 95.

The Biddeford site is on Barra Road, a short distance from Southern Maine Medical Center and a variety of other medical businesses. It's right off Exit 36 of the Maine Turnpike. The 10 acres is in a largely commercial zone that's had a lot of retail and office development in the past decade.

All three are still in the initial planning process, with sites reviews, public hearings and more ahead of them, and Greco said it's too early to speculate on when construction would begin.

"It's a long process," he said. New zoning is necessary for all three project, and has been initially approved by boards in the cities. Greco said the projects are still in the early planning and design process with the municipalities. None of the parcels have been closed on, he said.

Courtsey / Saxon Partners

A conceptual plan for Saxon Partners 245-unit apartment complex at the former Pineland Lumber site, 10 Avon St., Lewiston.

Boosting Lewiston economic development

In Lewiston, the development is being welcomed as a solution for a 6.5 acre riverfront property that's become an eyesore and could add to the city's economic base, as well as a way to provide housing for those who work in and around the city.

The site, which includes 5.5 acres on the river side of Avon Street and two smaller adjacent plots across the street, was a mishmash of zones. A contract zone that would allow the development was approved in May.

Those who live in the neighborhood, a mix of industrial and residential buildings a few blocks from Main Street, have said since the project was proposed last year that they're concerned about traffic and other impacts the added residents would have on the neighborhood. But Saxon and city officials said those issues will be addressed in the coming approval process.

Saxon officials have said that the apartments would be ideal for workers at the two nearby hospitals, which combined have more than 4,000 employees

Central Maine Healthcare supports the project, as long as it works for the site, said spokeswoman Kate Carlisle.

The support is "contingent on the idea that construction would have minimal disruption for our patients and staff and visitors to the hospital campus," Carlisle, CMH director of public relations and community affairs, told Mainebiz. "As it has been described, the project is likely to boost economic development in Lewiston," she said. "We are committed to hiring full-time employees who want to live locally. Any housing development that could potentially provide more options for employees would offer the opportunity for alignment.”

The Lewiston-Auburn Metro Chamber of Commerce also supports the project, said Rebecca Conrad, who stepped down as president of the chamber at the end of June, but was in that role when the project was proposed and went before the planning board for the initial rezoning approval.

She said more quality housing is needed to attract young professionals to the city. "And it's a really smart way to add value, by reusing that property," she said.

The site has 1,100 feet of river frontage, and development officials have come to understand what an asset rivers are, she said.

"It's an economic development fact that water attracts good development," she said.

Google maps

The red line shows Barra Road in Biddeford, where Saxon Partners, of Hingham, Mass., proposed to build a 250-unit apartment complex. The developer's model is to the build near hospitals.

Rental housing and infill

City officials have also been pushing for more rental housing for several years.

Almost all of Lewiston’s renter-occupied housing, according to the 2014 Comprehensive Plan, was built before 1940. The plan said that the declining condition of the housing stock and the prevalence of vacant property downtown “is Lewiston’s most pressing housing issue.”

Despite the tightly packed inner city, when the plan was written there were 150 acres of undeveloped land downtown — vacant lots, parking lots and more. At the time, undeveloped space accounted for about one-third of downtown.

The Saxon development would join several new developments in Lewiston and Auburn, across the river, that are adding both market-rate and workforce housing to the city as a means of filling that gap.

The Hartley Block, built on a vacant Lisbon Street site where several buildings burned down a decade ago, added 22 market rate apartments and 41 workforce units, opening in April. In Auburn, a new build at 62 Spring St., also opened this spring adding 41 workforce and market rate apartments.

Szanton Co., which built the Hartley Block, is also developing a 53-unit building at 48 Hampshire St. in Auburn that will have 11 market rate and 42 affordable apartments, and is expected to open next year.

In Biddeford the proposal fits in with the findings of a housing needs summary done in March, in partnership with MaineHousing. The report said that the real estate market in the city is hot, and the housing market and quality of housing in the city has shown "drastic improvement," but those who can't afford new housing are being left behind.

The city's growth is attracting younger residents, and the median age is decreasing, bucking a trend in most of the rest of the state, and city planners both last fall and this spring were in favor of the initial plans.

Photo / Maureen Milliken

15 acres on Civic Center Drive in Augusta may be developed into a 245-unit apartment complex by Saxon Partners, of Hingham, Mass.

Much-needed Augusta housing

The Augusta development, at 371-395 Civic Center Drive — once four large single-family lots on 15 acres and originally rolling farmland — got initial rezoning approval for 250 units from the city's planning board a year ago.

"The proposed apartments would offer a much needed housing option for employees of the nearby medical facilities as well as those working in state government and nearby private businesses," Saxon said in its application for the zoning change.

The city has had a rental housing crisis for several years. In 2015 the Augusta Housing Authority, seeking a federal Community Development Block Grant to help bolster the city's rental housing needs, said nearly 500 rental units had been lost in the previous two years to code violations, fire and the ravages of the recession.

The $500,000 grant was approved, and since then, several workforce housing projects have been built, including renovation of the former Hodgkins School in partnership with the housing authority and Developers Collaborative, of Portland. The authority also recently opened 29 units of new workforce housing at Kennebec Locke, the former Statler Tissue site owned by the city.

There are also planned senior housing projects. Freeport developer Tim Gooch is before the planning board this week, looking for approval for a tax increment financing district for 42 units farther south on Civic Center Drive, near the entrance to UMA. Gooch was originally planning 48 market-rate units, but now plans 42 units of senior housing.

He told Mainebiz last year that the acreage is large enough for 100 units, but he's starting slow.

"Even in the capital city it's hard to make the numbers work," he said.

Greco, of Saxon, echoed that, saying while the projects in the three cities are moving forward, "but, like everything, it's about making the numbers work."