PORTLAND, Maine — Developers in Portland are proposing two new projects that would create nearly 200 condos in the city as the state faces a shortfall of thousands of housing units.
Real estate development company GreenMars is planning to build high-density housing, a combined 170 units, at 1877 Congress St. near the Portland International Jetport and 410-418 Auburn St. in the Deering neighborhood.
"Stroudwater Commons" on Congress Street and "Deering Village" on Auburn Street will both contain multi-family buildings with 10 condos for sale in each. Some condos will have an accessory dwelling unit—a studio apartment—which could be used to house in-laws or to be rented out.
"We talk about homeownership as if it were a ladder," GreenMars co-founder Chris Marshall said. "That ladder is disrupted right now, we're missing a lot of the lower rungs on that ladder."
GreenMars founders Marshall and Nate Green said they want to bridge the gap to help people, especially first-time homebuyers, find an affordable path to home ownership. The two complexes will blend affordable housing with market-rate prices. Half of the units will be affordable housing.
"You have this group of people that just cannot buy a single-family house in Portland. Now a starter home is $500,000, so basically we're looking for that whole group of people that are stuck in apartments. They’re stuck as renters and they’re not able to bridge that over to homeownership," Green explained.
A recently enacted law, LD 2003, requires cities to increase the housing density allowed in their zoning ordinances. It essentially prohibits single-family zoning in an effort to address the state's housing crisis.
"In order to maximize that density, the condo model works so much better than single-family houses does. We're just able to fit a few more units on the piece of property, so therefore, the project's able to come to fruition," Green said.