City Announces $1.9 million in ARPA funds for two new Champlain Housing Trust projects, including new homeownership opportunities at Cambrian Rise; CityPlace Partners now integrating affordable homes into mixed-income, mixed-use project
Burlington, Vt. – Today, Mayor Miro Weinberger, Champlain Housing Trust (CHT), Evernorth, CityPlace Partners, and Cambrian Rise announced milestones on three significant Burlington affordable housing projects. Over the next 2-3 years these projects will create a total of more than 180 new permanently affordable homes in Burlington.
“The only way out of our long-standing, acute, housing shortage is to build a lot more homes. Today’s announcements will help ensure that during this period of historically high levels of new home production in our City, nearly 200 will be dedicated to low-income households,” said Mayor Miro Weinberger. “Burlington is fortunate to have skilled, committed local non-profit and private builders working towards this goal.”
The new milestones are:
- Mayor Weinberger is seeking City Council approval at the December 18 meeting of $1 million commitment of the City’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to Post Apartments, a 38-unit apartment building to be built on the current site of VFW Post 784. The project will also include a new home for the VFW, community space, and office spaces for Burlington’s Community Justice Center, and is expected to start construction in the spring of 2024.
- CityPlace Partners has decided to build the roughly 70 permanently affordable units required on the project integrated throughout the north building of the project, instead of as a stand-alone, publicly financed, affordable housing building in partnership with CHT and Evernorth. The foundation of the north building was built in 2023 and CityPlace Partners projects vertical construction of the building to begin in the first half of 2024.
- With CHT’s development capacity and large public subsidies no longer committed to CityPlace, CHT is now pursuing the development of a new building in the Cambrian Rise neighborhood which will include 30 permanently affordable, shared-equity condominiums, as well as 40 permanently affordable rental homes.
- Mayor Miro Weinberger is seeking City Council approval of a commitment of $950,000 of the City’s ARPA funds to these CHT projects at Cambrian Rise at the December 18 meeting.
“The success of the City Place Partners and their work at this site is critical to the success of Burlington’s downtown. We are disappointed that this partnership is ending but are committed to helping to make sure that CPP succeeds in bringing much-needed housing, especially permanently affordable housing to Burlington’s downtown,” said Michael Monte, Chief Executive Officer of CHT. “We are about to sign an agreement to develop 30 new permanently affordable condominiums through CHT’s shared equity program, as well as 40 permanently affordable rentals at Cambrian Rise, in partnership with Evernorth including apartments available to serve our community’s most vulnerable.”
“We worked closely with Champlain Housing Trust and Evernorth over the past twelve months, and ultimately felt it made sense to absorb the permanently affordable units into the project, rather than place them in a single building,” said Patrick O’Brien, Project Manager for CityPlace Partners. “We appreciate that CHT and Evernorth will continue to bring low-cost housing units to fruition at two other exciting developments in Burlington, and others throughout the state. This decision is a win-win for everyone because CityPlace Partners will provide affordable homes with very little, if any public subsidy, which will free up millions of dollars of incentives for the creation of units elsewhere in Burlington.”
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