UNE signs full building lease for Westbrook apartment building

Photo / Courtesy New Ventures LLC The University of New England signed a five-year lease for Seavey Terraces, a 65-unit apartment building that is nearing completion at 35 Seavey St. in downtown Westbrook.

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By Laurie Schreiber

The University of New England signed a full building lease for Seavey Terraces, a modern 65-unit apartment building that is nearing completion at 35 Seavey St. in downtown Westbrook.

The building is under development by New Ventures LLC and managed by LUX Residential.

LUX Residential and its sister companies — LUX Realty, LUX Partners and LUXOLO — comprise the Portland-based LUX Cos., founded and led by Daren Hebold.

“UNE intends to utilize the building for graduate student and staff housing beginning in approximately Q2 2025,” Hebold said.

Range of unit sizes

The development is a project of New Ventures, led by Portland developer Jack Soley and builder Tim Hebert of Hebert Construction in Lewiston.

Working with Simons Architects in Portland and New York City-based engineering firm Thorton Tomasetti, the development includes TimberHP’s wood fiber insulation.

Construction started in mid-2023 as the first phase of a three-phase development that all together is expected to cost close to $50 million, said Soley.

Financing for Seavey Terraces came from Norway Savings Bank.

It’s expected construction will finish up in January.

“It’s coming right along,” said Soley.

Seavey Terraces offers a range of living spaces, from studios to two-bedroom apartments. The project was conceived to help fill a void in Westbrook housing, Soley said.

The idea was to serve as workforce housing at below-market rates, with rental rates of 100% to 120% of the area median income.

The targeted rental rates are voluntary — there are no deed or rental restrictions on the building — “but in keeping with our philosophy of providing high-quality housing to middle-income folks that work in the community,” said Soley.

The lease with UNE allows the rental rate to be at the lower end of the scale because there won’t be vacancies, he noted.

Need for student housing

The connection between the development group and the University of New England came about because UNE doesn’t have its own housing at its Portland campus.

“We’ve traditionally relied on the market for our students,” said Alan Thibeault, vice president for university operations.

In recent years, he said, UNE has heard from students that they’re having difficulty finding any available or affordable housing in the general area, to the point where some students have declined enrollment because they can’t find housing.

A couple of years ago, he said, UNE started talking with area developers and looking at various developments underway or anticipated to come online.

Seavey Terraces, just over three miles from the campus and available in a timely manner, seemed right.

UNE recently opened an access drive that will make it easy for Seavey Terraces residents to get to the campus without going through one of Westbrook’s busiest traffic intersections, he said.

The lease at Seavey Terraces starts in May 2025, good timing for students arriving for UNE’s summer programs.

The lease will also help accommodate the campus’s growing student population, with the school’s construction of its Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences, a comprehensive health sciences campus to include UNE’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, or COM.

It’s expected COM will relocate from UNE’s Biddeford campus to Portland in the coming academic year, said Thibeault.

“Come July 2025, they’ll be taking their classes on the Portland campus,” he said. “That’s bringing another 400 students to the Portland campus.”

UNE will furnish the apartments and utilities will be on when students get there, he added.

“The only thing students will have to do is make arrangements for internet service,” he said.

The school has a five-year lease on the building, with an out clause in case UNE builds its own housing before the lease term expires.

He credited Soley and Hebert for their flexibility in working with the school.

Seavey Terraces is in an opportunity zone, which means the apartments can be sold as condominiums after 10 years have passed, noted Soley. The intention is to sell the condos at workforce housing price points, he added.