FAIRLEE — The Development Review Board will consider a proposal for mixed-use housing and retail development on the site of the old Colby Block in downtown Fairlee during a public hearing on Wednesday night.
Jonah Richard, who owns Appleseed Development with three other partners, is proposing to construct two, three-story buildings containing 22 one- and two-bedroom apartments and four retail spaces on the site, located on the corner of Route 5 and Bridge Street. The retail spaces would occupy the ground floor, with apartments on the second and third floors, according to a description of the project submitted to the board.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Town Hall and can also be streamed on Zoom via fairleevt.gov.
Appleseed Development purchased the nearly half-acre plot of land in 2021 and cleaned it up. In the years since, it’s been a spot for food trucks, live music and other community activities.
“We didn’t have a sense of what we wanted to develop from day one,” Richard said in a Monday phone interview. Richard has renovated several properties in downtown Fairlee including 501 Main St., where Sunnyside Coffee Company is located, and has become known for his approach to small-scale, village development, which he documents in a newsletter called Brick + Mortar.
Around a year ago, they started developing plans and titled it The Denison. The group settled on a mixed-used development, in part, because the Colby Block was similar.
“We have a dearth of commercial space and this will help take the pressure off of it,” Fairlee Zoning Administrator Chris Brimmer said in a Monday phone interview.
In May 2007, a fire destroyed the nearly century-old Colby Block, displacing nine residents and seven businesses. In the years since, other developments have been proposed for the site but nothing ever came to fruition.
Richard will ask the Development Review Board to approve the project’s master plan — which includes the design of the two buildings, parking and landscaping — during Wednesday night’s meeting.
“My anticipation is that applicants are going to get a laundry list” of things to address from board members, Brimmer said.
The project will likely cost around $6.4 million, Richard said. While the funding sources are uncertain at this time, Richard said it will likely be through private capital and debt.
“The goal is to minimize the federal and state funding we’re relying on because it’s more of an uncertain source,” he said. “If all goes to plan, I think we’ll have a better sense by the end of this year how we’re going to fund the project.”
The apartment rents will also be driven by the funding sources, Richard said. If Appleseed has to rely more heavily on private capital, “you tend to market rate rents,” he said. “The more federal or state subsidies we get, we can add more workforce housing.”
The tentative goal is to start building next summer, Richard said. If it does, there’s a chance Richard could have two housing projects under construction in Fairlee at the same time: Last year, Richard got approval for Bridge + Main, which aims to renovate and build at least 19 new workforce apartments using Vermont’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. That project is through Richard’s development firm, Village Ventures.
CORRECTION: Jonah Richard owns Appleseed Development, along with three other partners. Additionally, Richard renovated 501 Main St., where Sunnyside Coffee Company is located. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Appleseed’s ownership and which Main Street property the developer renovated.