New building replaces YWCA housing
The grand opening of a new apartment building in Portland tomorrow will mark the end of a two-year process that allowed the Portland Museum of Art to acquire and tear down the adjacent YWCA.
As part of the deal, Portland developers Nathan Szanton and Robert C.S. Monks agreed to replace the affordable housing lost when the YWCA was torn down and the museum placed $900,000 in escrow with MaineHousing to help fund replacement affordable housing somewhere else on the Portland peninsula, according to a press release from The Szanton Co. MaineHousing then committed an additional $4.57 million of financing towards the project.
The new building at 53 Danforth St. is the result of that deal. The building has 43 apartment units, 30 of which will be set aside at rents $300 a month below market rates for households with incomes at or below 60% of the area median income, according to the release. The developers are touting the building's significant green features including a solar thermal hot water heater, hall lights with motion sensors, superâinsulated walls and a "carbon counter" in the lobby that will count in real time the amount of carbon unreleased into the atmosphere because of the building's green features.
Szanton and Monks have collaborated on affordable housing projects in Portland before. Casco Terrace on State Street opened in 2004 and Walker Terrace on Congress Street opened in 2006, according to The Forecaster. The pair is also working on plans for workforce housing adjacent to the Riverdam Mill in Biddeford.
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