2020 Residential Development that Overcame Significant Obstacles
St. Regis House
Developer: Chesapeake Community Advisors, Inc. and Berlin Housing Authority
Location: Berlin, NH
St. Regis House is a former school in Berlin, N.H., overlooks the Androscoggin River. The development combines HTCs, LIHTCs, energy grants and funding from HUD to renovate and preserve St. Regis. The development is also subsidized by a project-based Section 8 contract, which will maintain the affordability of St. Regis House.
The former school was built in 1910 and converted to affordable housing in 1981. St. Regis House required substantial upgrades to the interior and exterior, including new kitchens, flooring, paint and repairing the brick and stone exterior. Twenty-two of the apartments were reconfigured to meet current code requirements.
“Ben Etheridge, former principal of CCA, spearheaded the effort to help Berlin Housing Authority acquire and substantially rehabilitate St. Regis,” said Christine Smith, senior project manager at Chesapeake Community Advisors Inc., the developer of St. Regis House. “Ben’s tax credit development experience in rural New England provided the inspiration to preserve this senior and disabled housing located in the economically depressed northern New Hampshire community of Berlin. Despite enormous challenges with the financing, acquisition and construction, the entire development team’s persistence and determination saved this critical affordable housing resource while preserving an important historic asset in downtown Berlin.”