NORTHAMPTON — The city secured a $2.5 million state grant Monday that will help advance long-held goals of remaking Pleasant Street as a central gateway into downtown and significantly boosting the number of affordable homes citywide.
A major part of the remake involves construction of two multiuse projects not far from each other on opposite sides of Pleasant Street. One is a 72-unit HAPHousing development in the old Northampton Lodging site that’s already under construction, while the second is a 55-unit housing project being developed by Valley Community Development Corp. at the old Northampton Lumber site.
Together these two projects are expected to create 127 new downtown rental units, most of which will be affordable, and almost 9,000 square feet of new commercial space.
The Valley CDC’s project would not have been possible without the MassWorks grant announced Monday, officials said.
The project has been stalled since the realization that a storm drain beneath the property would need be moved — at no small cost — before construction could begin. Mayor David Narkewicz said about $1 million of the MassWorks funds will go toward moving the conduit.
“That public infrastructure would have been cost-prohibitive for Valley CDC to fund along with their project,” Narkewicz said.
Valley CDC Executive Director Joanne Campbell said officials at the nonprofit are excited to move forward. The project, approved in January 2015, calls for construction of a four-story, 69,785-square-foot building after demolition of the Northampton Lumber buildings at 256 Pleasant St. The new building would include one-, two- and three-bedroom affordable units on all floors and about 5,300 square feet of commercial space on the first floor.
“We’ve been waiting for the MassWorks award,” Campbell said. “They’ve sort of held those cards very close to their chest.”
Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash announced the award in person at City Hall on Monday alongside Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and Northampton Rep. Peter Kocot.
“Our application called for strategic infrastructure investments along lower Pleasant Street to transform it from a state highway into more of a city street and key downtown gateway,” Narkewicz said Monday in a statement, thanking state and federal officials “for supporting that vision.”
The remaining $1.5 million of the MassWorks grant, he said, will go toward improved bike lanes, on-street parking, sidewalks, trees, benches, curb extensions and other improvements along Pleasant Street. Narkewicz said he pushed for the grant in order to leverage the combined $30 million invested in the two housing projects, as well as to bolster new businesses like Beehive Sewing and Beerology and more coming to that end of downtown.
“There’s a lot of exciting stuff happening,” he said.
Under the direction of Planning and Sustainability Director Wayne Feiden, Narkewicz said, he hopes to usher in a new era for the key entry point into the city. To accomplish this, Narkewicz said, the city has also pitched in a combined $600,000 in Community Preservation Act funds and $350,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding to subsidize the developments.
Meantime, HAPHousing has begun constructing its five-story, 65,000-square foot apartment building at 129 Pleasant St. The building will include a combination of studio and one-bedroom apartments, with 48 designated as affordable and 24 as market rate. Another 3,500 square feet of space on the ground floor facing Pleasant Street will be leased for retail purposes.
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.