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.”
Preliminary plans show the building to be six stories high with the average size for the apartments at 327 square feet. The building would also feature bicycle storage rooms, a laundry room and offices for property management, resident services, and maintenance staff on-site.
