The site plan for Pennywise Path – a 60-unit, mixed-income rental housing development that will be built on Martha’s Vineyard – shows how green space and landscaping will be incorporated into the project.
Low- and moderate-income residents on Martha’s Vineyard long have struggled to find affordable homes to rent on the island. But as early as next summer, 60 families will have a chance to move into a new mixed-income community that will be the largest multifamily development ever built on the island.
The community, known as Pennywise Path, will be built on a 12-acre site in Edgartown and will feature 60 rental units that will be affordable to those earning anywhere from 30 percent to 140 percent of the area median income. Construction of the project is expected to begin at the end of next month.
The new development will fill a critical gap on the popular island vacation spot where affordable year-round rental housing is hard to come by, according to the project’s supporters.
“While Martha’s Vineyard is growing and the need for workers grows, the available housing appears to be shrinking. Nobody builds housing for working-class people here,” said Alan Gowell, who helped form the Edgartown Affordable Housing Committee, which initiated the project several years ago. “That’s why the town had to step in and take a role.”
With prodding from Gowell and his fellow committee members, Edgartown agreed to set aside 12 acres of town-owned land for affordable housing about seven years ago. Then, two years ago, the town selected The Community Builders in Boston – a private nonprofit developer that has built thousands of affordable housing units across the Bay State – to develop and manage the housing development.
The Community Developers received a comprehensive permit to build the project last summer, according to Felicia Jacques, TCB’s director of development.
“I think what [the town is] looking to try to do is address the housing needs of islanders who are not able to stay on the island – the middle-class, moderate-income people like municipal workers, nurses and teachers,” said Jacques. “This is going to provide multiple levels of income affordability.”
Thirty-six units in Pennywise Path will be reserved for people earning less than 60 percent of the area median income, which is $36,240 for a family of three in Edgartown. The $15.7 million project is designed to appeal to families, with more than half of the units featuring two bedrooms and 19 offering three bedrooms. The homes will range in size from 800 square feet to 1,250 square feet.
‘Different’ Dynamics
Homes that are available for sale on Martha’s Vineyard are mostly purchased by vacationers and new rental housing is not being built on the island, according to Gowell.
Only 83 year-round rentals were created on the island during the last four years, and another 165 units are in the works, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Needs Assessment, which was updated last year.
Meanwhile, home prices have soared. The median price for a single-family home in Edgartown jumped 59 percent to more than $716,000 last year from $450,000 in 2001, according to The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman. The median price for a single-family home countywide reached $650,000 in 2005.
“Communities like ours that are becoming so popular so fast are having trouble planning for maintaining the workforce,” said Gowell. “The dynamics here are different than on the mainland where people can travel great distances to their jobs. But it doesn’t work on an island. That’s why we have to work extra hard to build housing for local workers.”
Pennywise Path, which was designed by Cambridge-based Winslow Architects and is being built by Williams Building Co. of South Yarmouth, will include 2- and 3-story buildings – 21 in all – that will be clustered together and set back from environmentally sensitive areas.
Because Pennywise Path is being built using modular construction, the development is expected to be finished within 12 months.
The project is being built through a mix of financing, including tax-exempt bonds and state funding.
MassHousing recently committed $10 million in financing for the project, including a 40-year permanent loan of $4.9 million. The agency also will provide a $3.3 million, six-month bridge loan and a loan for up to $1.8 million through its Priority Development Fund, a program launched two years ago to help affordable housing developers fill financing gaps.
Pennywise Path also has received $1 million from the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund – which is administered by both MassHousing and the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development – and $750,000 from DHCD.
The developer also is planning to use federal and state Low Income Housing Tax Credits, the sale of which is expected to raise an additional $6.8 million for the project.
“While there continues to be a need for affordable rental housing across the state, the need is particularly acute on the island of Martha’s Vineyard,” said MassHousing Executive Director Thomas R. Gleason in a press release announcing the $10 million loan commitments. “With our loan commitments, we will help create attractive, environmentally friendly and much-needed mixed-income housing for people who live and work year-round on the Vineyard.”
