WEST BRATTLEBORO-Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT) and its co-developer, Evernorth, have received a $6.2 million funding boost from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board to help redevelop the historic Chalet property.
The redevelopment is planned to preserve the original Chalet building and create a new neighborhood with a mix of housing types and architectural features.
The conceptual design was informed by residents currently living at the Chalet and in the immediate neighborhood, along with municipal staff members and those from Groundworks Collaborative, WWHT's service partner, according to a news release.
The original alpine-style chalet was built in the mid-1960s by the late Ursula and Oskar Dalem.
Ursula, who recently died at nearly 98 years old, sold the 17-acre parcel and lodge to WWHT, which bought it with Covid relief money in 2020.
The housing trust partnered with Groundworks then to use the location as emergency housing during the pandemic.
Dalem's Chalet operated as a banquet facility/motel/restaurant and as a lodge from 1964 to 2020.
The 2020 deed transferring the Chalet property to WWHT explicitly stipulated as a condition of sale that Ursula Dalem would have life tenancy, along with the option to be buried next to her husband on the property. She did live out her life on the property, according to her attorney, Ted Kramer, of Brattleboro.
In November 2020, however, Ursula Dalem fell down a staircase at the property and was hospitalized with myriad broken bones for more than 40 days.
She subsequently sued WWHT, which by then had spent $2.8 million converting rooms into apartments and converting the kitchen into a dining and common area.
Kramer confirmed this week that the parties had entered into a confidential settlement agreement. Dalem had been seeking $750,000 in damages from WWHT in the lawsuit.
Construction could begin late this year
"This funding allows us to continue moving forward with our vision of transforming the Chalet property into a vibrant, sustainable neighborhood with affordability for households earning a range of incomes, and new housing opportunities for our community while taking a meaningful step in reducing Brattleboro's dire housing shortage," said WWHT Executive Director Elizabeth Bridgewater.
The new project design is to include single-family homes for homeownership, townhouses for rental opportunities, new multifamily rental buildings, and a community space, which will be renovated with many historic features intact.
Fifteen of the homes are to be designated as permanent supportive housing, which will offer "a stable environment for people exiting homelessness," reads the press release.
Construction of 70 homes is expected to move forward in four phases, beginning late this year. The project is expected to be completed in 2028.
As approved unanimously by the Development Review Board in January, the first phase will entail the construction of a $13 million, 31-unit multifamily building.
In Phase 2, plans call for building eight detached single-family homes to be made available through WWHT's shared-equity homeownership program, as well as a standalone, 18-unit building.
Phase 3 will see the building of approximately 30 units in the form of new townhouses and apartments in several buildings, "including four in the redeveloped historic Chalet building, eight in new-constructed town homes, and then 20-ish apartments in a new-construction single building," Bridgewater told state senators in Montpelier in testimony about the project to the Senate Infrastructure Committee on Feb. 14.
The Chalet redevelopment project is a public/private partnership, with private equity supplying about 50% of the budget. Bridgewater told lawmakers that the public investment portion gives the developers "ability to leverage other funds."
Plans have called for the standalone homes to be built using modular home construction and "cost-conscious design elements," Bridgewater said.
"We don't want to have eight of the same exact houses, one right after the other," she said. "So we're looking at two different designs. We also want to meet the different household needs to so we're looking at designs that have three bedrooms and designs that have one bedroom."
The project also brings contemporary accessibility measures to the site.
"We're building sidewalks and lanes for people to travel, and then we're also bringing in public transportation," Bridgewater said, describing River Valley Transit Authority's decision to add three stops for the Moover as "a huge win."
Sharing the equity
Approximately 32% of the non-public funding will come from the sale of properties to homeowners, she said.
With shared-equity housing, homeowners own the structure, but the land trust owns the land it sits on - a model that makes it possible for people to build equity.
Windham County Sen. Wendy Harrison, the committee chair, pointed out that the state's investment "goes on in perpetuity."
"And then it doesn't become unaffordable, but the folks who are there now do get equity increases so that they're able to move on," she said, calling the program "just a really, really nice model."
Once completed, the Chalet property is expected to contribute more than $100,000 in annual taxes to Brattleboro.
Evernorth is a nonprofit organization serving low- and moderate-income residents of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont with affordable housing and community investments.
For more information about WWHT or the Chalet Redevelopment project, visit homemattershere.org/chalet-redevelopment.
Additional reporting by Jeff Potter.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.