Less-expensive housing popping up in Nashua, Amherst and Milford in response to growing demand by workers

Source: The Telegraph, Nashua, N.迷利倉H.Oct. 27--As new renters in a tidy pond-side development in Amherst, Dan Kinney and his family are happy. They're even happier to be in the newly opened Hidden Pond Apartments."It's pretty close to work, it's nice all around us," said Kinney, who moved from Salem, and who recycles old equipment at Corriveau Routhier in Nashua.The kicker is that Hidden Pond is workforce housing, open to people with an income below about $40,000. Rent is kept around $900 a month. Each has two bedrooms and 11???2 baths."I was looking for a place that was this good of a deal. That definitely helped," Kinney said of the brand new 28-unit complex off Amherst Street, not far from the Milford lineA few miles west in Milford, a different-looking project -- rehabbing a 150-year-old mill that includes a working hydropower plant and a bell once rung to mark the change in work shifts -- will serve that same income market."We prefer the term 'workforce housing,'???" said Eric Kuczarski, senior project manager for Dakota Partners, of Waltham, Mass., which is developing the Pine Valley Mill conversion.It will create 50 apartments -- 35 one-bedroom and 15 two- bedroom -- at rents around $900-$1,100 a month in the three-story mill, leaving about 20,000 square feet of commercial space so that several longtime tenants, including Earthworks, can remain.When open, probably this spring, it will be available for people with annual income of up to about $40,000.This is one of several workforce housing projects in which Dakota Partners is involved, although the project is its first in New Hampshire, Kuczarski said. The developers have switched entirely to that model from standard housing projects because financing is available through federal tax credits.And the market for affordable rentals is strong."There's a real shortage of one-bedroom apartments around here," he said during a tour of the project Friday.Even as the traditional housing market starts to recover from the recession, the region is seeing a flurry of workforce rental housing developments these days, serving a market that was largely overlooked during the bigger-is-better housing boom of the early 2000s.The most publicized of these projects is Cotton Mill Square in downtown Nashua, which will put 109 units, some of them subsidized, into a former mill building on the north side of the Nashua River.Several others are coming in the Souhegan Valley. Aside from Hidden Pond and Pine Valley Mill, a proposal for single-family duplexes off Route 122 in Amherst recently received an OK from the Planning Board to be considered affordable housing, which presents an advantage to developers, who can place more units per acre; this one would have up to 16 units.Another developer recently showed the Milford Planning B迷你倉ard designs for five buildings with a total of 125 apartments for the same market he would like to build just off Route 101A at Milford's eastern border.At the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, Jane Law, director of communications, said that while these projects aren't related, they reflect the current market."One of our theories is that after the housing market crash, there was a lot of pent-up demand," she said. "Developers are more eager to get into the market. The activity is just starting to build again, which is fun to see."They also reflect another reality: The number of rental units in the area has been relatively stagnant for years, which increases demand."Despite the housing market crash, rental costs never went down," Law said.Jennifer Vadney, development manager at the nonprofit NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire, which oversaw Hidden Pond Apartments in Amherst, said the interest is evident."As soon as we starting making presentations at the town Planning Board back in 2011, we started getting phone calls from people interested in it," she said.The state has a workforce housing law that requires communities to offer housing within reach of middle-income people, such as starting teachers and police officers -- but enforcement of the rule is spotty, at best.The new apartments are open to individuals and families who meet federal income guidelines by earning at or below 60 percent of the median household income for the area, which is about $40,000 for an individual. Applicants must qualify through federal Housing and Urban Development rules.Financing for such projects can be complicated. At Hidden Pond, for example, Amherst selectmen accepted a community development block grant that's paying about 7 percent of the cost of the $6.7 million project. There are also about $584,000 in low-income housing tax credits through the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, which are sold to investors to keep rents lower.The $11 million Pine Valley Mill renovation is being funded through a variety of private and government sources, including a $385,000 community development block grant received by Milford.But all of this complication can be worth it, say those who move in.Phyllis LeBlanc, 86, said Hidden Pond made it possible for her to come here from New York and live near her daughter, Paula Ahari. Her fixed income wouldn't have allowed her to afford rents more typical of an upscale town like Amherst, if rentals were even available."I just consider myself lucky," she said.___David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashua telegraph.com. Also, follow Brooks on Twitter (@GraniteGeek).Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Telegraph (Nashua, N.H.) Visit The Telegraph (Nashua, N.H.) at .nashuatelegraph.com Distributed by MCT Information Services自存倉