Concord’s city councilors supported the proposal Monday for a 54-unit apartment complex to be built at the blighted former tannery parcel in Penacook.
For the city-owned brownfield site near the center of the village – vacant since 1987 – the nonprofit affordable housing developer’s full-price offer represents the potential resolution of a 15-year, $4.86 million cleanup effort led by the city.
The Massachusetts-based Caleb Group, which was one of only a few serious suitors over the years, proposes to buy the remaining land and use federal tax credits to build apartments, mostly designated for low-income residents.
In a 14-1 vote, with Councilor Allan Herschlag dissenting, the city councilors authorized the administration, which recommended the proposal, to enter into an agreement with the Caleb Group to sell the developable land, subject to contingencies.
The council’s clear support of the proposal stood in stark contrast to the comments made at the public hearing. None of the five speakers Monday supported the project, and two more wrote letters against the proposal.
The Allied Leather tannery, established in 1942, employed hundreds of people and had a measurable impact on national shoe leather production. But it left behind chemical remnants after it went bankrupt in 1994 that caused the city to deem the lot impractical for private development.
Leveraging mostly federal and state funding, the city led a lengthy, multimillion-dollar effort to buy and clean up the brownfield site, which is currently surrounded by chain-link fences that warn against trespassing.
Part of it was sold and developed in 2011; the rest is about 4 acres. The 2.5 acres of developable land went on the market for $540,000 in August 2015.
Matt Walsh, the city’s director of redevelopment, downtown services and special projects, said there have been only three showings since.
“Two developers wanted to do workforce affordable housing, and then the other I describe as a house flipper who was going to be in way over his head,” Walsh said.
The offer made in November by the Caleb Group stipulates that most of the apartments will go to low-income residents. The nonprofit intends to build two buildings of 24 and 30 units in phases to be completed roughly in 2020 and 2022.
The Caleb Group, which owns about 1,000 units of affordable housing on 29 properties, intends to use federal tax credits to finance the project and offer rents below the market rate. The 40 one-bedroom apartments were estimated to cost between $780 and $936 a month, and the 14 two-bedrooms between $936 and $1,123.
The median gross rent in Concord last year for one-bedrooms was $955 and for two-bedrooms was $1,145, according to New Hampshire Housing.
At a meeting in Penacook last month, a slim majority of attendees said they opposed the project.
Supporters said it was about time to do something with the long-vacant site, and this proposal might be the best thing to come along, noting the low population density and relatively small traffic count that discouraged most builders.
Councilor Brent Todd, who represents the ward, said a majority of constituents with whom he spoke favored the project, although for many it was a “reluctant acceptance.”
The detractors argued, however, that Penacook wouldn’t feel the benefit of the new tax revenue for years, as long as it goes to the local tax-increment finance district, and yet any children who move into the apartments would represent an immediate cost for the school district.
Penacook residents paid among the highest property tax rates in the state last year.
Walsh predicted that nine children would move into the 54 apartments, which he noted would be marketed toward senior citizens. But some residents worried that calculation might be low, and City Councilor Allan Herschlag warned that the per-student cost of education meant anything more than five children would outweigh the apartments’ property tax contribution to the school district.
During the public input session Monday, residents maintained that the city could attract at least a mixed-use development if it held out a little longer.
Heather Tiberi pointed to her high property taxes and said apartments aren’t what Penacook needs.
“What might help families like mine is to work harder to attract business revenue which makes much more sense than to add more apartments in an area that already has empty buildings and apartments throughout,” she wrote.
But the council posited a different theory of economic development. While residents said their neighbors are moving away to avoid the tax burden, councilors pointed to existing empty commercial space and said businesses want more people.
“I do think there’s an idealized idea that Penacook is going to be something it once was,” Councilor Fred Keach said. “Penacook needs to move forward, and I think filling downtown Penacook with bodies and people and families is going to revitalize the commercial part of Penacook and add to its vibrance.”
Councilor Byron Champlin said that commercial spaces would be filled when there’s a trained workforce ready to go. “You don’t create that after you get the business. You have to have it in place,” he said.
Champlin added: “A vibrant community has people living in it, and not vacant, empty lots.”
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at
@NickBReid.)