CONWAY — Improvements to the Mount Washington Valley Economic Council’s Technology Lane — including extending the arc of the road to provide better access to two unsold lots owned by the council — were included among 11 Granite State projects announced last week by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in the more than $3.74 million in bipartisan funding legislation for fiscal year 2022.
The bill cleared a key committee hurdle last week, reported Shaheen, who is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“These are projects that make urgent investments in our children’s education, public safety and sustainability for our environment and communities,” said Shaheen. “We still have a ways to go in Congress, but I’m encouraged by the bipartisan spirit that helped push funding for these projects forward.”
Jac Cuddy, executive director of the MWV Economic Council, told the Sun on Monday that the council is earmarked to receive $200,000 to bolster infrastructure upgrades at the Technology Village Business Resource Center, including the installation of water, road, sewer and broadband networks.
Cuddy especially hailed the road work.
“This will connect a portion of Technology Lane where the Technology Village is located to the other side that will be where the Avesta workforce housing project will be built,” said Cuddy.
He said that connection will provide access to two lots that the council would then be able to sell.
“Like Lots 3 and 4 that are being purchased by the Redstone Group for office space, this will provide access so the council can sell them," Cuddy said.
"Those proceeds would put the council in really good shape as it would free us of any debt and it would put several hundred thousand dollars in our loan fund that can be used for the business community so it would be a real positive,” he added.
Cuddy explained that Shaheen had earlier in her career allocated an earmark for the council but the budget did not get passed, killing that funding.
“I had talked with her and said, you know, if the opportunity ever presented itself again would she be willing to resubmit it, and she said absolutely — so here we are,” said Cuddy.
He said workforce housing has been a component of long-range planning for the MWV Tech Village from the beginning of the council in 1998.
“I think some people don’t realize that the tech village business park has always included a portion for workforce housing,” said Cuddy.
Cuddy said the road connection will help the council to continue to develop its 61 acres.
The Conway Planning Board gave conditional approval on June 11, 2020 to the nonprofit Avesta Housing Development Corp. of Portland, Maine to put up 156 workforce and senior rental housing units off Technology Lane.
Avesta owns and manages more than 90 properties in Maine and New Hampshire.
Technology Lane will be extended to a southern connection to Route 16 across from Merrill Farm Resort, with the units divided among four buildings.
Avesta project development officer Patrick Hess this week said the project is funded by tax credits through New Hampshire Housing and Community Development Block Grants as well as by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. Construction is slated to start this fall, although Hess said he does not yet have a specific date for that work to start.
“We are planning for the first building to have 29 one-bedroom units and 11 two-bedroom units, for a total of 40 in the three-story building, which like all of the planned buildings will be equipped with an elevator,” said Hess.
Senior rental housing would be considered for one of the other three buildings, Hess said, who added that that determnation has yet to be made, however. Building 2 will also have 40 units, while Buildings 3 and 4 will have 38 each. All four buildings will each measure 12,619 square feet.
Hess said rental rates will be based on federal Housing and Urban Development rates, which are calculated based on median income levels.
Based on a percentage of that, “our units will be mostly targeted to households making under 50 percent of the area median income or under 60 percent of the area median income,” Hess said.
“They change year to year, so by the time of occupancy it will shift some, but I expect, for example, under current HUD guidelines for Conway, a one-bedroom apartment for a person making 50 percent or less of the area median income would pay $800 a month including utilities,” he said.
At the Conway Zoning Board of Adjustment’s July 21 public hearing, the ZBA granted a special exception to the Redstone Group, LLC to allow the construction of a 9,000-square-foot office building within the business development park on Technology Lane.
Asked about the Redstone Group, HEB Engineering project manager Josh McAllister described it as a “locally owned real estate investment firm that is seeking to develop the lot for an office building and is seeking tenants.”
He said he believes the company also is looking to buy the adjacent lot.
In addition to the MWV Tech Center, other projects earmarked by Shaheen's efforts include: $200,000 to support the construction of a new public safety building in Northumberland; $200,000 for a new fire station in Swanzey; $175,000 for an emergency communications initiative in Campton; the installation of a fire sprinkler system in the Claremont Opera House; $250,000 for energy improvements to the Newport town office; $1,150,000 for the Oyster River Resiliency Project (ORRP), a proposed community-centric microgrid connecting the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and town of Durham; $271,00 for a Hanover streetlight LED project; $500,000 to help fund a 2.2 megawatt (MW) landfill solar project in Derry; and $500,000 for the design of a solar landfill project in Bedford.
Gloss