The industrial park off Security Drive in Avon was first developed in the 1970s. Over the last five decades, it’s been home to an insurance company and academy of the arts. Soon, it’ll be home to hundreds of families.
The Homes at Avon Park will bring about 400 more apartments to the town, with the majority of them being affordable.
The original scope of the project included constructing a 100-unit building and converting the existing office space into another 76 apartments. Two additional buildings have since been added to the project plans.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said Avon is setting an example for other towns on how to make use of existing buildings to create new homes.
“I don't care what town or what city that you live in,” Bysiewicz said. “There are buildings like this one sitting empty, not productive, that could be the housing that we desperately need in our state.”
Avon town officials welcomed the project and asked for more affordable apartments than originally planned, according to Dara Kovel, who is Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Communities, the project’s developer
“When we brought on our second hearing at Planning and Zoning, and we were going through the final process, they're like, ‘So, how many affordable units are you going to do here?’” Kovel said. “I said, ‘Well, at a minimum, probably 60% of the units.’ And they said, ‘We want you to do more.’”
The new constructions will be energy efficient, producing a fraction of the carbon impact of regularly constructed homes.
Using the existing office building and constructing new structures on the site required special permissions and funding streams that make the project unique, according to Connecticut Housing Finance Authority Executive Director Nandini Natarajan.
“Not only is this an adaptive reuse, it's also new construction,” Natarajan said. “To have both of those… it's generally not common to see that because they come with their own attendant challenges.”
Of the first two phases in the works, more than 80% of the 176 apartments are going to be designated affordable to families earning between 80% to 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
For Avon, the median income is $125,500, according to the town's affordable housing plan. A family of four at 80% AMI would earn about $84,000.
