NORTHAMPTON — About a month after a $30 million housing project planned for Village Hill fell through, the developer has filed for bankruptcy and prospective buyers are on his list of about 130 creditors.
Court records show Robert Carter Scott, president of Transformations Inc., filed for Chapter 7 relief on Dec. 9. The filing puts Scott on track for asset liquidation.
The developer had planned to construct a total of 83 homes on a 35-acre site at the north end of the Village Hill campus before MassDevelopment terminated the agreement in October for lack of financing.
Scott, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, said in an earlier interview hopeful homeowners had each given him $15,000 deposits to put toward design and permitting. Instead of holding the money in escrow, as is typical in projects in which the developer does not yet own the property, Scott said he spent the money upfront.
Planning and Sustainability Director Wayne Feiden said the project is “near shovel-ready” so long as a prospective developer keeps the current site plan. The plan calls for 23 single-family homes, 15 duplexes and a 30-unit cohousing community.
Prospective buyers among the cohousing community hope a new developer keeps the plan as is.
Kelsey Abbruzzese, a spokesperson for MassDevelopment, said the agency issued another request for proposals last month and that Marty Jones, the agency’s president, visited Northampton last week to meet with prospective residents about the project’s direction.
“We’re aggressively marketing this,” Abbruzzese said, adding there are 34 interested developers signed up to get additional information about the project. She said the deadline to respond to the RFP is Jan. 18. The organization is looking for a company with similar goals to Transformations, which planned zero-energy homes for the project. A zero-energy home is designed to produce at least as much energy as it uses over the course of the year.
Several creditors on the list declined comment or did not return calls from the Gazette. Two members of the cohousing group said they harbored no hard feelings toward Scott.
“We’re very optimistic that they will continue with the project as proposed,” said Pedro Levy of Pelham.
Levy had hoped the project would succeed under Scott’s leadership. As for the deposits, he said he knew from the beginning his deposit would not be put in escrow.
“Each one of us knew exactly what the risks were,” he said. “There are no hard feelings toward Carter because it was absolutely crystal clear from the beginning.”
He said the deposit funds went toward a good cause.
“Our money financed a huge amount of work,” he said. “We knew there were risks involved.”
Susan Lantz said members of the cohousing group, of which she is a member, have spent money and worked hard to bring the development to fruition, and they “are still invested in making it a reality.”
She said she stands by Scott because he had a great vision. “I think he upholds the right principles,” she said. “As far as I can see all the chips just fell in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Both Levy and Lantz declined to provide copies of their agreements with Scott.
The Northampton development isn’t the only Transformations project in the commonwealth that didn’t come to fruition in 2016. MetroWest Daily News reported in July that Scott’s projects in Sudbury and Lexington were under similar stress, and that members of the Sudbury Housing Trust were skeptical of how Scott spent town money. According to a release posted on Nov. 16, Scott’s nearly-completed Sudbury project was scheduled for bank foreclosure on Dec. 16.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.