State funds to benefit area housing projects
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: July 8, 2009
BELLOWS FALLS — State officials came bearing million-dollar gifts Tuesday to two downtown affordable housing projects in the region.
New owners for the Rockingham Canal House and rebuilding the fire-gutted Ellis Block in Springfield got a lot of financial help from the state in the form of loans and grants.
The biggest check, a $3.5 million grant, went to help Stewart Property Management of Bedford, N.H., purchase the Canal House, which was converted to housing for seniors and disabled people about 30 years ago, and to undertake widespread renovations.
State and local officials said the Canal House, which ended up in foreclosure proceedings last year under its former owner, was the victim of 20 years of deferred maintenance.
In Springfield, the Ellis Block was gutted by a late-night fire exactly a year ago, and is now on the cusp of a $2.8 million renovation and rebuilding project, spearheaded jointly by the Springfield Housing Authority and Housing Vermont.
The Rockingham Canal House, which is on the historic Bellows Falls Canal, contains 41 apartments, whose residents only pay 30 percent of their income for their apartments, with the balance picked up by the federal government.
Rockingham town officials said they were thrilled with Stewart's new ownership of the Canal House, and they said Stewart had done a wonderful job managing two other downtown housing properties – the Exner Block and the Howard Block.
Paul Stewart, president of Stewart Property Management, said the building as a whole would undergo extensive renovations and individual apartments would also be upgraded.
Stewart Property Management manages affordable housing complexes throughout New England, including 16 different Vermont communities, including Rutland, Springfield, Brattleboro, Randolph, White River Junction and Ludlow.
The problematic air conditioning at Canal House will be replaced, and will be based on tapping the groundwater to cool the building, according to Ryan Stewart. The apartment building's unusual glass elevator will be replaced with a newer, more efficient model, he added. All the exterior brick will be repainted and repairs will be done to the building's historic slate mansard roof, Stewart said.
While residents pay an average of $200 a month toward their apartments, the apartments rent for $978 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, with the balance coming from the federal government. Stewart must rent 40 percent of the units to people with incomes of $15,000 a year or less, he said.
Stewart said his firm had tried to buy the building from the previous owners four years ago, but an appraisal of the building caused the owner to withdraw. That owner, a consortium of out-of-state investors, eventually let the building go toward foreclosure.
Many of the renovations to the building will have an energy focus, from the new cooling and ventilation system, new windows and hopes of putting a solar array on the roof to generate electricity for the building.
The $1 million deferred loan going to Springfield Housing Unlimited, a new joint project by the Springfield Housing Authority and Housing Vermont, brings the project to 90 percent of the funding for the project, according to Nancy Owen, president of Housing Vermont.
Owens said she hoped construction would start on the Ellis Block in 10 to 12 weeks, and reconstruction is expected to take 10 to 12 months.
Bill Morlock, executive director of the Springfield Housing Authority, said the rebuilt Ellis would include the Springfield Theater, which is expected to have three auditoriums. Upstairs, there will be nine apartments, he said.
The building will be managed by the Springfield Housing Authority.
Both projects are funded by the 2008 Congress' neighborhood stabilization program.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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