WEST LEBANON — The City Council is scheduled to decide whether to sell three city-owned commercial properties on Main Street to a developer at its Wednesday meeting.
Officials are mulling selling the lots to developer DEW Properties for between $650,000 and $700,000 to build about 32 units of affordable housing across multiple upper floors and possibly commercial space on the ground floor “if a suitable tenant can be identified.”
DEW Properties plans to partner with White River Junction based-nonprofit Twin Pines Housing Trust for the redevelopment project.
The City Council will consider an option agreement Wednesday to give the developer until December 2027 to buy the land.
The developer, DEW Properties, has been involved in building or renovating several properties around the Upper Valley, including the 42-unit Riverwalk affordable housing complex in White River Junction in partnership with Twin Pines and the 250-unit Marek South in Lebanon. The company has offices in Williston, Vt., Keene and Manchester, N.H. and Portland, Maine.
Under the proposed plans, the new building would tentatively cover 5,000 square feet of surface area and likely convert part of Church Street to parking, according to meeting materials. The cross street that stretches from Main Street to Maple Street would become a dead end. The Planning Board is expected to hold a conceptual review of the design at a May 11 meeting.
The city purchased the properties at 14, 28 and 30 Main Street in 2023 as part of an effort to revitalize Main Street and planned to use the lots to build a new West Lebanon fire station or work with a private developer to replace the more than 120-year-old structures with something new.
The city bought the properties from real estate firm Chiplin Enterprises for $1.75 million. At the time, two had tenants; furniture reseller Vintage Home Center, which has since moved to North Main Street, and the Lebanon Sewing & Vacuum Center, which closed in 2024.
All three existing buildings across the street from Shyrl’s Diner and Montshire Automotive are currently empty.
After buying the land, the City Council tasked the West Lebanon Revitalization Advisory Committee with surveying West Lebanon residents about how it should be used. A majority of respondents said they would prefer to see the property used for a mixed commercial and residential building over relocating the West Lebanon fire station.
In 2024, at the committee’s recommendation, the city sent out a request for proposals to redevelop the properties into a mixed commercial and residential building and received no responses, according to meeting materials.
After the failed attempt, the city reached out directly to developers to “better understand the lack of responses” and to drum up interest. The city entered a formal agreement with DEW to figure out the feasibility of redeveloping the properties in September 2025.
The City Council is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.
