SUNDERLAND – The plan to build a 150-apartment complex off Amherst Road is one step away from approval now that the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals has determined the designs were complete and voted to send them to the Sunderland building commissioner. This project had been roughly a decade in making, and 25 percent of the apartments will be what the state considers affordable housing. This comes at a time when many housing officials note the relative lack of affordable housing around the county.
Michael Charles and Brian Cohan, the principals of Benchmark Development, are in the process of purchasing the project from Bourey LLC, and they presented their construction plans for Sugarbush Meadows to the board last week. Following the board’s determination, Charles and Cohan said Joe Fydenkevez will now review the designs and decide whether to issue a building permit. Charles and Cohan said they hope to get shovels in the ground within a month. Charles said construction is expected to last 18 months, ending in August 2020.
Cohan told The Recorder the purchase from Bourey LLC is imminent and contingent upon receiving the permits. Bourey LLC, when last reported by The Recorder, was a limited liability company owned by Gerard Aubrey, an accountant from Holyoke, and Paul Boudreau, a South Hadley lawyer. Charles and Cohan declined to disclose costs and investment.
The developers told ZBA members the complex will include two clusters of buildings – one that consists of two three-story residential buildings and a one-story, roughly 4,000-square-foot clubhouse, and one that consists of three of the three-story residential buildings. Charles said each of the residential buildings will hold 30 apartments and the clubhouse will be a common space, with a fitness center. There will also be a parking lot that can accommodate about 200 vehicles. Cohan said the complex will cover about 18 acres. He also said 25 percent of the 150 units will be designated as affordable housing, while the rest will be market rate for the general public.
Charles said the five residential buildings will have “a New England look,” with architectural asphalt shingles and cultured stone.
He and Cohan emphasized it is important to them to have good communication with neighbors and abutters.
“Our objective, obviously, is to kind of minimize the impact on the neighboring area, and that’s what this whole plan is trying to outline for you,” Charles told ZBA members. “We’ll get to know our neighbors and communicate as is appropriate as we get into the project.”
Cohan said Benchmark has urban projects in the works and “it becomes really, really important that we’re in constant communication” with neighbors. He said one project is on a Main Street “in a sensitive downtown” and a newsletter – identifying major activities, such as deliveries, around the site – goes out to neighbors every Monday.
In 2006, Scott Nielsen of Amherst and his company, Sugarbush Meadows LLC, applied for the comprehensive permit under state law Chapter 40B, but the ZBA denied it two years later and suggested the town already had enough affordable housing to meet the law’s requirements. The board also cited concerns about fire apparatus access.
Nielsen appealed to the state Housing Appeals Committee and it ruled in his favor. Sunderland then lost an appeal in Franklin Superior Court and, in 2011, the Board of Selectmen voted to appeal the decision with the state Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC upheld the Housing Appeals Committee’s original ruling and the town was ordered to issue the permit in January 2013. According to previous Recorder reports, Nielsen sold the property Bourey LLC for $880,665 in 2012.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.