BURLINGTON — Mayor Miro Wienberger was joined by city and state officials at a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday to mark the completion of the latest affordable housing project in the city.
The Laurentide Apartments at 65 Cambrian Way boasts 76 permanently affordable units as part of the larger Cambrian Rise neighborhood redevelopment. The neighborhood sits on land previously owned by Burlington College and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, where 800 units are expected to be completed over the next several years.
Of the 800 units, a total of 150 units are designated affordable. On Sept. 27, ground was broken for Juniper House, a 70-100 unit building for seniors, with both affordable and market rate apartments. The remaining units will be rentals at market rates and condos.
“We’re celebrating today, first and foremost, this great, new, affordable family housing apartment,” Weinberger said. “This is the type of housing we need much, much more of.”
Next to a new 12-acre city park with access to Lake Champlain, the building cost $20.7 million, with over $12 million coming from a tax-credit equity from People’s United Bank and the Green Mountain Housing Equity Fund. Loans from the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, city funds and energy incentives also helped pay for the building.
The Champlain Housing Trust, the Vermont Land Trust, the city and developer Eric Farrell worked together to prevent the land from becoming a large, single-family property, according to Weinberger.
“We are today celebrating the transformation of this spectacular, but long troubled piece of property, into a vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income community,” Weinberger said.
The new building has one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, most of which are already being rented. The average rent for a two-bedroom unit is listed at about $500 lower than fair market rent in the region.
The building also houses about a dozen residents who have recently come out of homelessness.
“What we’re celebrating here today is the opportunity this building is giving to people to have a home,” CEO of Champlain Housing Trust Brenda Torpy said.
To address climate change, Torpy said, building densely in the city and utilizing efficiency incentives is the right model for future projects. Weinberger agreed, saying he’d like to attend more ribbon cuttings in the vicinity.
Weinberger also made a special note of CEDO’s involvement in the project, saying, “CEDO staff has kept their eye on the ball on affordable housing and certainly made sure that we got to this groundbreaking.”
President of Housing Vermont Nancy Owens said this project, and others around the state, wouldn’t have been possible without a $37 million bond approved by the state Legislature in 2017.
“Because of the Housing Revenue bond we were able to secure all the financing needed to build these 76 apartments in a single phase,” Owens said. “We know that that saved us over $1.5 million in construction costs.”
Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe lives only a few hundred yards from the Laurentide building and knows “how desperately needed they are,” in his neighborhood.
“I know first-hand as someone who has developed affordable housing how important this is,” Ashe said in a statement. “It’s just what we hoped for when we passed the state housing bond.”
“Welcome to the neighborhood,” he added.
Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, who attended the ribbon cutting, spoke of the negative impact of high housing costs on Vermonters, but says he is hopeful projects like Cambrian Rise and Laurentide can ease the burden for residents and help the state meet its goals.
“I was talking with one of the residents outside as I walked in. She expressed such joy at having a clean, quality, beautiful place to live in this building,” he said. “It was such a great feeling to see her excitement.”
Burlington has been struggling with affordable housing costs. VTDigger reported on recent housing reform ideas and found that 60% of Burlingtonians pay more than 30% of their income on rent, before utilities. The 1.5% vacancy rate over the last seven years puts the city below what is considered a healthy housing market.
Weinberger said a number of housing reforms will be presented to the City Council Monday night.
