BURRILLVILLE – Woonsocket-based NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley has signed a purchase and sales agreement to buy a roughly 15 acre patch of vacant town-owned land with plans to build affordable housing for seniors.
According to the agreement signed by NWBRV Director Joe Garlick and Town Manager Michael Wood, the non-profit would pay $315,000 for the land – subdivided from a larger 50 acre parcel adjacent to Steere Farm Elementary School. Preliminary plans envision a 60 unit housing complex open to residents age 55 and older.
“This was advantageous to our goals of providing affordable housing – especially senior housing,” Councilor Stephen Rawson said of the deal at a meeting where councilors unanimously approved the agreement in December. “We carved out about 15 acres for our housing project.”
The effort in town to create more housing for Burrillville’s older population began in 2021 with an initiative by Rawson to form a Senior Housing Exploratory Committee. Rawson chaired the board, which looked at potential site for the project.
A feasibility study completed by real estate advisors Bonz and Company, Inc. in 2022 found that the target market contains approximately 7,969 income-qualified senior households, and that projects currently underway in surrounding communities would not be sufficient to meet the local demand.
The town secured a $250,000 grant for design of the project in 2023 with the idea of creating one and two bedroom income qualified units available to older residents with household incomes of between $0 and $42,000. Town officials called in the city-based non-profit in hopes that the complex could be privately run with a transfer to the organization. NeighborWorks previously worked with the town to develop the award-winning Clocktower Apartments in a blighted former mill building, along with other successful housing projects.
State law currently requires that every community dedicate at least 10 percent of housing stock to affordable units, and while Burrillville has been successful at staying at or near the requirement, increases to the statewide goal have often been considered.
“I hope the community knos that this is our attempt to stay ahead of the housing people in Providence,” Wood said at the meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 11. “It will keep us above the affordable housing limits if this project goes as planned. We’re putting our terms and conditions – not a developer’s terms and conditions so this is a great step forward for the town and hopefully it will go as planned.”
According to the agreement between NWBRV and the town, closing on the 14.725 acre Steere Farm Road parcel will be held within 60 days of approval of a RI Housing Site Acquisition Grant, but no later than 12 months from the date of this agreement unless extended by mutual agreement of the parties.
The town’s 50 acre lot, situated by the town line with Glocester, was reportedly acquired through a land swap with the developers of Steere Farm Estates sometime around 2017.
Officials have stated that the target date for project completion is 2026, and that the town will incur no cost for the development.
That’s great as I am looking for an apartment in the area.
This is wonderful.