Spring Rock Village Awarded Final Funding

BREWSTER – Spring Rock Village is officially underway after the select board voted to award $1 million in funding through the Brewster Affordable Housing Trust. 

The affordable housing project began in 2018 when a 16-acre property was designated for community housing purposes at a special town meeting. Over the next two years, the affordable housing trust conducted a feasibility study, watershed study and oversaw community outreach efforts. Nonprofits Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) and Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC) submitted the winning proposal, securing development rights. 

The lot sits on Millstone Road, abutting condos to the north and residential areas to the south. The approved site layout has plans for 45 rental units in five separate buildings, a community building, a maintenance shed and 81 parking spaces. 

The rental prices will range from 30 to 80 percent of the area median income, spanning a wide breadth of affordability. Brewster residents will have preference for 55 percent of the units, with 15 percent for other Barnstable County residents. 

In June 2023, a comprehensive permit was approved by the zoning board. Over the next year, officials received community preservation funding from Brewster, Wellfleet, Truro, Orleans, Provincetown, Eastham and Chatham. 

Following the success in receiving local capital funding, POAH and HAC submitted an application for state grants in June. Officials recently learned they were one of 27 projects to receive a portion of the grant award totaling $6.7 million.

“We were awarded our state funding, which is really unprecedented to get in the first time into the state funding round and I think that’s a testament to the work of the town and how the town is viewed, at the state level, as a champion for affordable housing issues,” said Dave Quinn, vice president of real estate development at HAC. 

 This final $1 million is the “last piece of the puzzle” for Quinn and his colleague, Cory Fellows, said vice president of real estate development at POAH. 

 “I just wanted to amplify that the support of this funding request was unanimous at the trust,” said Ned Chatelain, select board member and representative to the affordable housing trust. The select board last week followed suit and unanimously voted to award the funds for the project. 

 The next step will be to submit the accepted application to the state and receive the grant funding which could take up to six months. Fellows noted that general contracts will be put out to bid at the same time.

 Construction is expected to start in April, and officials are hopeful the units will be 100 percent leased by January 2027.