Doors open on two Avesta projects that reuse historic buildings

Photo / Maureen Milliken Avesta Housing's Southgate development in Scarborough, which includes a historic farmhouse, has opened for residents.

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By Maureen Milliken

More than 100 people spilled out of the tent set up at Tuesday's ribbon-cutting for Avesta Housing's latest completed project — the 12-unit restoration of Mildred Fox School in South Paris.

While the project may seem small by some standards, it will make a huge difference in the town of 2,230 and its surrounding area, both in terms of available housing and for community development, said Dana Totman, CEO of Avesta.

Meanwhile, in Scarborough, eight residents have moved into the "99% completed" Southgate development, also by Avesta.

Totman said the Fox School and Southgate projects are different in scope — urban vs. rural — but they have something in common. "We get way more applicants that we have apartments for," he told Mainebiz this week.

Avesta Housing, which has 98 properties in Maine and New Hampshire, and more than 3,200 residents, got 4,046 applications from Maine residents last year and was able to house 373 of them, Totman said.

"The demand is huge," he said. Filling that demand is difficult given the cost of construction, delays related to construction challenges, getting financing, identifying sites and more.

He said the biggest factor is inadequate state and federal resources. Totman said one key to helping ease the logjam of housing development in Maine is LD 1645, which increases low-income tax credit standards.

Avesta's focus is on any type of housing in the Portland area, where it's difficult for workers, families and seniors to find housing they can afford; replacing substandard housing in the Lewiston-Auburn area, where aging stock has issues like lead paint and lack of necessary amenities; and senior housing in more rural areas, like South Paris.

"We usually have three or four projects started a year, but we need six or eight," he said.

Mildred Fox School and Southgate are two that Avesta has completed this spring.

Photo / Maureen Milliken

Additions to historic Southgate Farm in Scarborough are designed as a nod to the agriculture heritage of the property.

Finding breathing room in Scarborough

Southgate, designed by Goduti-Thomas Architects of Portland, resembles a traditional New England farm, with the 214-year-old main house, an attached service wing, two historic barns and two additional outbuildings.

There are eight one-bedroom apartments in the main house, with four studio, six one-bedroom, 12 two-bedroom senior units in the addition, as well as eight two-bedroom non-age-restricted apartments for households making 50% to 60% of the area median income.

Avesta submitted its plan for the property to the town in 2015, a year after it was identified by the town's Historic Preservation Committee as one of 48 historically significant properties in town.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places last year, which allowed Avesta to use historic development tax credits as one of the financing tools.

The project cost $7.6 million to complete, and financing included an investment from real estate investment firm Boston Capital, which provided $4.4 million in equity from the low-income housing tax credit and the historic rehabilitation tax credit programs.

The project also got a $100,000 grant last year from the Scarborough Housing Alliance, which works to find affordable housing solutions in the town of about 20,000, 10 miles south of Portland.

“I feel like we’ve been waiting for this project for years, literally,” said Marj DeSanctis, chairman of the housing alliance, when the grant was approved. “It’s really quite a substantial number of units that are all affordable. Everywhere else we get pieces of affordable. This one I would like to say yes."

The grant required that 10% of the units be available to low-income residents, regardless of age.

According to MaineHousing, the median income in Scarborough is $82,882, but the median home price is $395,000, and a buyer would need $114,313 a year to afford that. The agency distributed 9% low-income tax credits to the project.

Totman said the way everything came together for the project is "fantastic."

"It's fulfilling both priorities [of historic preservation and affordable housing], and it's a great development," he said.

Dana Totman of Avesta at Fox School South Paris

Photo / Maureen Milliken

Dana Totman, president and CEO of Avesta Housing, talks to the crowd gathered at the at the ribbon-cutting for the 12-unit Fox School affordable housing development in South Paris.

Backing a school in South Paris

In South Paris, 50 miles north of Scarborough, many of those who gathered at Tuesday's ribbon-cutting had worked at or attended Mildred Fox School, which closed in 2008, and was briefly used by other tenants. It's future was uncertain when Totman was approached by town leaders and business people.

"That planted the seed," he told the crowd of more than 100 who gathered under and around a tent in the parking lot at the development. He said the efforts of the community "made this project happen."

Totman told Mainebiz that a small project like the South Paris one can be challenging.

“Rural projects tend to be smaller, so many of the fixed costs — architect/ engineering — get spread among fewer units, driving up the per unit cost," he said. "This, along with limited public water and sewer, dissuade funders from investing, even though in many cases the need is huge.”

He said, though projects like Fox School may be small, they make a big impact in a community of that size, not only because it makes scarce housing available, but because it gets seniors who may be isolated back into the community.

"There's comfort to being in town, around people they know," he said.

Avesta bought the school for $125,000 in December 2017, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places that year as well.

The $3,175,000 project was funded with $1,975,000 in Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Historic Tax Credit Equity from the Northern New England Housing Investment Fund, MaineHousing and Norway Savings Bank. It also got $750,000 in an Affordable Housing Program Direct Subsidy from Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston and Norway Savings and $450,000 in 0% deferred debt from MaineHousing.

Archetype Architects of Portland designed the project and Portland Builders Inc. was the general contractor. Avesta also lists 37 area businesses that were involved in the project.

Aside from the businesses involved, groups that took part in the project included former teachers and staff, the Paris Cape Historical Society and Neighborworks America, which supports affordable housing efforts.

Seven of the apartments are for residents at 50% of the area's median income, and five are for those at 60%. According to the most recent figures from MaineHousing, the median income in the Bridgton-Paris area is $44,508, lower than what can affordably pay the median house price of $160,500.

Photo / Maureen Milliken

The crowd at the ribbon-cutting for Avesta's Fox School project in South Paris spilled out of the tent set up for the event.

'Changing lives'

Norway Savings Bank, which invested in the project, was presented Avesta's Mike Yandell Award for extraordinary work in affordable housing at Tuesday's event.

Patricia Weigel, president and CEO of Norway Savings, said the project is at the core of the bank's mission, not only as a mutual savings bank, but as a community bank. "It's at the heart of what we do."

She cited the challenges to finding housing for many in the community, and Avesta's focus on quality historical developments that help sustain communities.

Avesta is "changing lives," she said.

The first tenant of the building was Carol Fanjoy, who had worked at the school from 1988 until it closed. Fanjoy said when she had to retire early because of health issues, she had difficulty finding housing she could afford.

When she worked at Fox, "it was more than a school," but those she worked with "made it home." Since moving into her Fox School apartment, she told those gathered Tuesday, "Ever since the first day, I've felt like it's home."