The Oak Bluffs select board voted to enter into a land disposition and development agreement with Island Housing Trust and Affirmative Investments to create affordable housing at the town’s 7.8-acre site on Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road in an area known as the Southern Tier.
Affordable housing committee chair Mark Leonard told the board this agreement was the culmination of nearly three years of work between the committee and the planning board, which included creating the request for proposals (RFP).
IHT and Boston-based Onyx Group were the only two candidates to submit RFPs. After review, IHT’s project was chosen.
The IHT and Affirmative Investments project offers 60 units with 113 bedrooms with a $31.6 million cost estimate.
One of the RFP requirements is for the developer to also accommodate future development on an adjacent 24-acre parcel to the rear of the property that was part of the “doughnut hole” land swap with the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank. That parcel is awaiting legislative approval, following a 17-year-old land swap between Oak Bluffs and the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank.
Board members thanked Leonard and everyone else involved with bringing the recommendation to the board.
IHT and Affirmative were also recently chosen by the Edgartown select board to build the Meshacket affordable housing neighborhood.
Yet another significant affordable housing subdivision success done without the need for an affordable housing tax on real estate sales.
As president of the board of directors of the Island Housing Trust, I can say we are all more than pleased and quite thrilled to have the opportunity to help mitigate the affordable, year-round housing problem on the Vineyard. We are grateful this Thanksgiving to have been selected – twice! We have an extraordinarily dedicated team of professional staff who have the foresight to partner with others, equally well-qualified to expand our capabilities. Affirmative Investments, Inc. is just such a partner. We are excited and proud to be working with them. We thank the towns of Oak Bluffs and Edgartown for the opportunity and their faith in IHT, and the Island community for its support. Happy Thanksgiving to all of us!
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