Beverly, Mass.
The Beverly Housing Authority is set to build two, two-family homes near the Montserrat train station, the agency's first new-construction project in more than 20 years.
The houses will be built on Spring Street on land the authority bought from the MBTA in 2002 for $10. The authority already has a single-family home on the site.
The two new homes, plus repairs to the existing one, will cost $1.27 million. The Housing Authority also plans to spend $1.8 million on repairs and improvements to several of its public housing developments throughout the city, for an overall cost of more than $3 million.
"It improves the quality of life for the residents of Beverly, and it creates jobs," Kevin Ascolillo, the Housing Authority's executive director, said of the projects. "If we can get people back to work, especially in the trades, that's a wonderful thing for the whole community."
The $3 million cost will be paid with grants from a variety of federal, state and local sources, including the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city of Beverly, and the North Shore Home Consortium.
Ascolillo said the Housing Authority applied to the state three times before landing a $500,000 grant for the project.
The authority manages 650 state- and federally subsidized units at 12 locations in Beverly. It has spent about $20 million in "modernization money" over the last 20 years, Ascolillo said, but the Montserrat homes will mark the first time in that span that it will have built something from scratch.
The four, two-bedroom units at Montserrat will be rented to low-income families who meet the income eligibility requirements. One of the units will be fully handicapped-accessible.
"It's a perfect location," Ascolillo said. "You've got the 'T' going right through the property, basically. People can get on the train and get a job in Boston."
Construction is expected to start in late summer or early fall, with the homes opening sometime in 2013, Ascolillo said.
The repair projects that are part of the $3 million plan include $756,000 to replace the exterior siding and insulate 38 units at Hilltop Drive, $400,000 for windows and doors for 104 apartments at the Kelleher Road and Cedar Street developments, $200,000 for boiler replacement at Kelleher Road, and $178,000 for new roofs at the Story Avenue site.
Beverly Housing Authority projects
Total, $3,075,180
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by email at pleighton@salemnews.com.