It’s no secret that affordable housing is hard to find in New Hampshire. Demand for apartments and houses outstrips supply. And rents and home prices keep rising. As Mayor, Jim has been keenly focused from the earliest days of his administration on meeting the challenge of affordable housing in Nashua. To date, Jim has exceeded his initial goal of significantly increasing new downtown housing – more than 700 units, much of it affordable, have been added to our downtown, and hundreds of more units are in the works. Jim’s efforts to help provide needed affordable housing as well as housing across the various levels of affordability include the following initiatives.
Affordable Housing
- Together with the Board of Aldermen, created an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to stimulate the further development of affordable apartments and homes for sale in Nashua; formed a policy-making citizen advisory committee for the trust fund; and earmarked a $10 million contribution of American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds which Nashua received from the federal government for the trust fund.
- Advocated for and signed the Nashua Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, which requires that a percentage of new housing units be below market in rent or purchase price.
- Worked with the Nashua Housing and Redevelopment Authority to build Monahan Manor, which will soon provide 210 units of affordable family housing on Central Street in our downtown.
- Working with the respected nonprofit Neighborworks to plan and build 46 new units of affordable housing at 229 Main Street, previously the site of a blighted parking lot.
The Mohawk Tannery Site Public-Private Partnership
- Together with the EPA and a private developer, the city is working on an important public-private partnership, many years in the making. Involving not only the environmental clean-up of the Mohawk Tannery site on the Nashua River after more than 40 years, Jim and his administration will guide the development of 500+ units of new housing on the 40-acre parcel; 20% of the project’s apartments will be affordable. Additionally, the private developer will contribute $2.3 million to Nashua’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Other Projects for Downtown Housing
- Lofts 34, the mill-to-housing conversion on Franklin Street, has brought 200 fresh, new, modern apartments to the north bank of the Nashua River.
- The Marshall Street Apartments development at Marshall and East Hollis Streets has added 150 units of affordable, workforce housing on the eastside of Nashua’s downtown.
- The nearly completed High Street Flats will provide 150 new units of downtown housing, just a half a block from Main Street. This private investment of $30+ million is the largest from-the-ground-up new apartment construction in Nashua’s central business district in 125 years.
- At the former site of the J. F. McElwain Shoe factory at the corner of Temple and Spruce Streets, a development of 350 units of new housing has recently been approved by the Planning Board; 20% of this new housing apartment will be affordable.
- At the City-owned NIMCO site in the Nashua Millyard, the planning for 120-200 units of new housing. The City has received 3 proposals from developers to build housing on this site, and those proposals are currently being evaluated.
