In The Press

GREENFIELD — Greenfield Cooperative Bank and Valley Community Development are partnering to offer a three-part webinar series for first-time homebuyers. The webinars will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 8, Thursday, Nov. 9, and Wednesday, Nov. 15, from 6 to 9 p.m. via Zoom.

The webinars will cover a variety of topics, including the home buying process, financing options, credit tips, home inspections and homeowners insurance.

“We are excited to partner with Valley Community Development to offer this webinar series to first-time homebuyers in our community,” Jane Wolfe, executive vice president of residential lending at Greenfield Cooperative Bank, said in a statement. “Buying a home is a major life decision, and we want to make sure that first-time homebuyers have the information and resources they need to make the process as smooth as possible.”

The cost of the webinar series is $50 for two adults in the same household. Registration is non-refundable and attendance is required at all three sessions.

To learn more about the webinar series, visit greenfieldcoopbank.com/events.

AMHERST — Even as policies, programs and spending included in Gov. Maura Healey’s $4 billion Affordable Homes Act are being strongly supported by Amherst officials as a means of ramping up housing production, the governor is being advised that pressures on the town’s housing stock could be eased if the University of Massachusetts housed more students on campus.

During a roundtable discussion at East Gables, a 28-apartment passive solar building developed by Valley Community Development that is Amherst’s newest affordable housing, Healey and Ed Augustus, the state’s secretary of Housing and Livable Communities, were largely complimented on the strategies in the bond bill.

NORTHAMPTON — At long last, the Iron Horse Music Hall has a new owner, and music could be emanating from the venerable Center Street location as soon as February.

The Parlor Room, a nearby music venue run by a nonprofit organization, announced Wednesday that they have signed an agreement with Eric Suher, the current owner of the Iron Horse, for a transfer of business assets, including the venue’s liquor license, and a 15-year lease to operate the music venue, which has been shuttered since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our interests were aligned,” said Chris Freeman, president of the Parlor Room Foundation, on the agreement with Suher. “We both wanted to see the legacy of the Iron Horse continue. We both think it’s been this incredibly important place in Northampton.”

CHESTER — Making good on an offer she extended during a recent legislative debate, East Boston Sen. Lydia Edwards visited Chester on Thursday to learn more about the challenges involved in developing affordable housing in the hinterlands of western Massachusetts.

It was part of a two-day trip for Edwards, who also found time to visit Fitchburg, Holyoke, Great Barrington, Springfield, Hadley and Greenfield.

In Chester, Edwards, who chairs the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing, joined Sen. Paul Mark, D-Becket, on a tour of the Chester Commons, the town’s former high school, which is undergoing extensive renovations since its purchase in 2020 by the Hilltown Community Development Corp.

The building was originally converted to affordable housing in 1987, but had fallen into disrepair under the previous ownership. Hilltown CDC’s aim was to preserve the 15 units of affordable housing for seniors and those with disabilities, while bringing the building up to modern standards of habitability and accessibility.

NORTHAMPTON — A Mediterranean breeze has swept through downtown, bringing a taste and feel of Morocco to Main Street with Meriyem’s Cafe.

Located in the storefront formerly occupied by Dobra? Tea, the Northampton eatery offers its patrons the allure and decor reminiscent of a traditional Moroccan home with an indoor garden or a courtyard, also known as a riad. For an added touch, all of the interior walls have been limewashed with actual limestone, mimicking the appearance of buildings in the western region of North Africa.

A native of Morocco, owner Raina Yetts recalls gathering outside at the riad around a sun oven to cook, eat and be together.

“I wanted that feeling here in America where people could try all of these Moroccan fusion items and Mediterranean fusion items in a gathering place rather than just having us just appear at a wedding a few times a year,” said Yetts.

AMHERST — Town-owned land on Strong Street and at the former Hickory Ridge Golf Course on West Pomeroy Lane, along with the properties that include the vacant Veterans of Foreign War building on Main Street and empty South Amherst School on Middle Street, are being eyed for future housing for low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

These pipeline projects, as Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek refers to them, could happen over the course of the next 12 to 15 years.

“I think all of these have potential,” Ziomek said at a recent Amherst Affordable Housing Trust meeting.

Doing the work on examining the redevelopment potential of the properties, though, is a matter of priority and the finite staff and resources the town has, Ziomek said. Still, such work can set up the town for soliciting affordable housing developers.

AMHERST — A North Amherst development that will include 30 affordable homes in 15 duplexes, giving home-ownership opportunities to families, is being financially supported by the Amherst Affordable Housing Trust.

The trust voted 5-2 on Aug. 10 to commit $375,000 to Valley Community Development’s Amherst Community Homes, a $17.17 million development on just over 9 acres off Ball Lane. The homes are to be part of the state’s Commonwealth Builders program, which provides a subsidy for first-time homebuyers and also aims to increase home ownership for Black, Indigenous and people of color communities and enhance generational wealth.

The trust’s support for the mix of two- and three-bedroom duplexes supplements $750,000 already coming from the town’s Community Preservation Act account.

Jessica Allan, real estate project manager for Valley CDC, said the idea of the project is to provide first-time homebuyers with access to new dwellings. “It is very rare to have this program and to have it available,” Allan said.

SUNDERLAND — With the flip of a switch, Sanderson Place’s solar array kicked on last Wednesday and set the senior housing facility on the road to energy independence.

At the same time, the event marked Pioneer Valley Photovoltaics’ (PV Squared Solar) 2,000th installation in western and central Massachusetts and southern Vermont. With a mission focused on sustainability and affordability, PV Squared worker-owner and Director of Marketing and Outreach Brittany Hathaway said the Sanderson Place array is a “stellar example” of how the Greenfield-based company works to create affordable housing.

“We can provide and celebrate energy independence in this diverse, beautiful senior community at Sanderson Place,” Hathaway said to residents, who were joined by PV Squared and Valley Community Development Corporation representatives. “The best part about the gift of solar is it keeps on giving and we know that this [photovoltaic] system will protect the affordability of living in this beautiful place.”

AMHERST — Two councilors seeking a package of zoning changes aimed at making it easier for duplexes, triplexes and converted dwellings to be developed in Amherst, addressing what proponents referred to as housing options for the “missing middle” between single-family homes and apartments, this week requested the plans be withdrawn.

District 2 Councilor Pat De Angelis and At-Large Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke, who crafted and sponsored the comprehensive proposal that was subject to Planning Board and Planning Department review for the past several months, are formally requesting the withdrawal in a letter to their colleagues sent Tuesday.

The withdrawal comes after the Planning Board in June voted not to recommend the zoning amendments, even though members appreciated many of the concepts embedded in the proposal.

NORTHAMPTON — As a teenager, Justin Brown relished visiting downtown with his friends. On a number of occasions, the Westfield native could be found hanging out in front of the former Iris Photo & Digital waiting for photos to be developed.

Little did Brown know that a few decades later, he would again be waiting out front of the four-story, circa 1880s building. Only this past Friday, he waited alongside Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra to cut the ribbon to officially open his retail business, Assemble Made and Curated, at its new location.

NORTHAMPTON — The Valley Community Development Corporation revealed preliminary plans Monday for a new affordable housing development that would provide 30 new studio apartments for low-income residents in a six-story building on Crafts Avenue behind City Hall.

Details of the planned development at 27 Crafts Ave. were presented during a Housing Partnership meeting by Valley CDC real estate development director Laura Baker. The city donated the property to Valley CDC, with a request to develop it into affordable housing, in 2022. The existing site includes a stairway leading to a parking lot between City Hall and the city’s Puchalski Municipal Building. A second parking lot for city employees is located at the bottom of the stairs along Crafts.

“Mostly, what we’re excited about is just how walkable this location is from everything to downtown,” Baker said. “It’s walkable to multiple bus locations in town, also extremely close to the bike trail as well as less than half a mile from the railway station.”

AMHERST — A permanent emergency shelter remains a long-term vision for the former VFW site on Main Street in Amherst, but in the short term, some guests served by Craig’s Doors: A Home Association will relocate this summer to rooms in a vacant Hadley hotel that has been eyed for affordable housing.

Craig’s Doors will soon move people from rooms at the University Motor Lodge in Amherst to the first floor at the former EconoLodge hotel at 329 Russell St., the Hadley hotel that Valley Community Development owns and has planned to convert to 51 apartments for up to 63 low- and moderate-income individuals.

That project has been delayed following the Hadley Zoning Board of Appeals voting down a comprehensive permit under the state’s Chapter 40B law.

NORTHAMPTON — A planned affordable housing development in the city is one of 27 projects across the state to receive a combined $246 million in subsidies and tax credits from the Healey-Driscoll administration.

The money comes in the form of direct state subsidies, federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act, and state and federal tax credits. The 20-unit Northampton project, at 23 Laurel St., received $5.7 million in deferred debt and $525,000 in low-income tax credits, money that allows the project to be fully funded, according to Alexis Breiteneicher, the executive director of Valley Community Development, which sponsors the project.

“Valley Community Development was thrilled to have 23 Laurel Street included as one of the funded affordable housing developments announced by Governor Healey [last] month,” said Breiteneicher in a statement to the Gazette. “Building more homes, particularly ones that are affordable, is an obvious solution to the crisis our region faces.”