The Mountain View Apartments on Mountain Avenue in Fairfield. Photographed on Tuesday, the complex, originally home to the Central Maine Sanatorium, was rehabilitated at a cost of more than $9 million and opened last month as affordable housing for low-income seniors. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
FAIRFIELD — A more than $9 million renovation has transformed a former sanatorium building in Fairfield into affordable housing for seniors.
Tenants began moving into Mountain View Apartments last month on Mountain Avenue, which extends off the Skowhegan Road just north of Interstate 95.
The complex, formerly home to the Central Maine Sanatorium, is available for those 55 or older who meet income requirements, according to David Bateman, president of Bateman Partners LLC, the Portland-based project developer.
The three-story building offers 28 apartments: 14 have one bedroom and the other 14 two bedrooms. Tenants have access to a laundry room and a common room, and there is also a management office, Bateman wrote in an email. Eighteen of the units were rented as of Wednesday.
Taylor Turner, a manager for Phoenix Management Co. of Saco, said the income criteria for residents include they earn no more than $32,000 a year for a one-bedroom apartment.
The money for the project came from Fairfield, the Maine State Housing Authority and private investments, Bateman said.
“The town has always been supportive of helping to expand the availability of housing for everyone within the community in all age groups,” Town Manager Michelle Flewelling said.
Fairfield has a few other housing complexes for the elderly and also the disabled, she said.
In 2013, the town renovated the historic Gerald Hotel on Main Street to house low-income seniors. Built in 1900, the property consists of 28 units for those who earn no more than $22,000 annually.
An abandoned building that is the former home of the Central Maine Sanatorium in Fairfield is shown in June 2021. The building has since been renovated at a cost of more than $9 million and opened last month to provide apartments for low-income seniors. Morning Sentinel file
“We really believe in supporting senior members who are looking for housing and making it affordable for them,” Flewelling said.
The building that is now home to Mountain View Apartments had sat vacant for several years and become an eyesore that attracted vandals.
It was built in 1955 to serve as the Central Maine Sanatorium, primarily to treat people from across the state suffering from tuberculosis. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
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