Goddard Block

Nature of Work: 40,000 SF rehabilitation of entire three-story, historic building dating from the early 20th Century, creating 36 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments for low to moderate income families. Nine of the apartments will be market-rate and the other 27 will be “affordable.” The ground floor of the building will continue to be commercial space.

This Project was subject to Davis-Bacon wage requirements and Section 3 reporting.

Location: Claremont, New Hampshire

The steel-framed building, constructed in 1926, remained in very good structural shape over the years. The rest of the building, however, necessitated the job of gutting it to the steel frame.

The building had no sprinkler system or fire alarms, rooms lacked any sort of proper egress and were set up as a maze of corridors with no discernable traffic flow. In addition to the leaking plumbing and faulty electrical connections, the building was a considerable fire risk.

Kevin Lacasse of New England Family Housing was able to work with various state and federal tax credit and funding programs to recreate the place as affordable housing/retail. Sources of funding include Low Income Housing Credits, a Historic Tax Credit, New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority subsidy, a Community Development Block Grant, a NHHFA construction loan and a permanent loan from NHHFA.