With financing secured, construction is set to begin on the Rail Yard development in Concord’s south end before the end of summer.
Dakota Partners, the site developer, announced it secured funding for the first phase of the project, which is expected to be completed over three phases. Once complete, the Rail Yard will consist of 199 apartments across four buildings.
Construction comes in the middle of a housing shortage in Concord, with the vacancy rate for rentals below 1%. In May, Concord Housing Authority stopped taking applications for low-income housing vouchers due to a shortage of places to live.
“The Rail Yard apartments will provide much-needed homes for our state’s workforce at a time when there is a very low inventory of apartments and increasing rents in Concord and elsewhere in the state,” said Ignatius MacLellan, managing director of New Hampshire Housing’s Multifamily Housing Division, in a statement.
Apartments will be priced as affordable, meaning residents must earn between 30% and 60% of the median income for the area. For one person in Merrimack County, this income bracket is between $19,700 and $39,360 according to New Hampshire Housing’s 2021 guidelines.
During the first phase of the project, 96 units will be completed as well as a clubhouse for the community. The units will be both one and two bedrooms.
Funding for the first phase was acquired through a few avenues, one of which being a Low-income Housing Tax Credit and tax-exempt bonds through New Hampshire Housing.
The project was approved by the city planning board last summer. The site sits on Langdon Ave, with South Main Street and the railroad track bordering the property.