- Hanover Company has taken over the 275-unit market-rate housing development planned near the Taunton MBTA station after the original developer withdrew.
- The $100 million project, featuring one- and two-bedroom units, will include a separate commercial/retail building.
- Despite challenges posed by wetland and soil conditions, construction is expected to begin in August and last approximately two years.
- The developer will pay $1.6 million into the city's Affordable Housing Trust in lieu of including affordable units.
- A 10-year Tax Increment Exemption (TIE) agreement will save the developer an estimated $2.5 million.
TAUNTON – A massive 275-unit market-rate housing development, intended to be built next to the new MBTA rail station in East Taunton, has a new developer. The original developer backed out of the project.
The proposal, which was approved by the city in summer 2023, was stalled last year when the original developer, Alliance Residential Co., withdrew, according to David Hall, regional development partner for Hanover Company, who bought and has taken over the housing project.
Hall told The Gazette the new train station and highway interchange at County Street and Rt. 24 are what attracted Hanover to the project.
Hanover Company came before the Planning Board on April 3 for approval for modifications to the original layout of the project.
What will it look like?
Hall said the basic site layout by Alliance remains the same.
Four buildings will comprise the 43-acre site, located right across from the new train station and its parking lot. Three of those buildings, nestled next to each other, will include 275 housing units.
The fourth building, set aside from the other three, is being sub-divided for commercial and retail use. Hall said this fourth building will be managed separately from the housing development by a passive business partner with a “retained interest” in the project.
Hall said no tenant has yet been decided for that space.
Other amenities planned include a pool, a kids' playground, a courtyard, and a clubhouse for gatherings and events.
Who is this housing for?
The units are being marketed as workforce housing, Hall told the Planning Board.
The 275 apartments comprise of 145 one-bedroom and 130 two-bedroom units.
How much will the units rent for
Hall said with the project a few years away from completion it’s too early for an accurate projection on rent. However, his early estimates are in line with what Alliance Residential stated when it was the developer:
$2,500 a month for one-bedroom units and $3,000 for two-bedroom.
A challenging site to build on
Despite the development being in a prime location, next to the rail station, at 1141 County St., the project has its challenges.
Two-thirds of the 43-acre site is wetlands, meaning only 14 acres are developable, as stated last year by the previous developer, Alliance Residential.
Hall told the Planning Board that Hanover’s research concluded that much of the site was excavated for use as structural fill back in the 1950’s when Rt. 24 was being built.
What was left behind was holes and voids that would become ponds and wetlands, as well as “bad soil” on much of the developable land that can’t withstand the weight of buildings and foundations on top of it.
Hall said Hanover is altering Alliance's original site plan to deal with these soil issues by shifting, reducing and reorienting the buildings away from the compromised soil and increasing the story height of some buildings, from 3 to 4-story, in order to compensate for the lost square footage occurring through these changes.
How much parking will there be
There will be 406 parking spaces for residents, plus 26 retail spaces for the commercial/retail building.
Hall said Hanover has no intention of its parking spilling over into the MBTA parking lot. “We manage the parking through the leasing,” he said, explaining that tenants will have to register their cars with the property manager in order to be approved for residency.
Parking garages will be built for residential parking.The garages will also have storage for bicycles and at least 20 EV charging stations.
Where's affordable housing?
Alliance’s New England Branch Managing Director Michael Boujoulian told the ZBA back in July 2023 the project was "on life support” due to multiple factors, including: inflation, rising interest rates and the majority of the site being difficult to develop with all the wetlands.
It was for this reason the ZBA begrudgingly approved an exemption to the 10% affordable housing requirement for that property, which equals 28 of the 275 units.
The developer agreed to pay Taunton $1.6 million into the city's Affordable Housing Trust as a fee for waiving the requirement.
Project gets a tax break
In March 2024, City Council, based on the recommendation from the mayoral administration and Office of Economic and Community Development, approved a tax break for the project in the form of a Tax Increment Exception (TIE) Agreement.
A TIE Agreement excludes a portion of real estate taxes for an agreed-upon time. In this case, 10 years, with estimated savings for the developer totaling $2.5 million.
No renegotiations
Hall said when Hanover bought out the project from Alliance there was no renegotiation of the terms with the city.
The TIE Agreement is still in effect and Hanover is agreeing to pay $1.6 million, in exchange for not including affordable housing in the project.
At the April 3 Planning Board meeting, Vice Chair Dennis Ackerman said that, while the Board couldn’t mandate affordable housing for the proposal due to it already being approved, he pleaded with Hanover to find a way to include some.
Hall said to the board that the project is costing around $100 million dollars and “the math barely works” even with the TIE and omittance of affordable housing, because “the site is so tight because of the soil issue.” He adds that adding affordable housing or including a higher affordability rate across the development could “kill the project.”
Timeline for completion
Hall said Hanover Company hopes to break ground and start construction by this August. Construction will take close to 2 years to complete.
Hall also said Hanover Company will also be the property manager for the development for at least the first few years of operation, but it could sell to a new management company down the line.
