An artist’s rendering of a proposed condominium complex with over 100 units spread across nine buildings in Portland’s North Deering neighborhood. Rendering by Invivid Architecture

A Portland real estate company is proposing its second project in as many months to blend affordable housing, condominiums and accessory dwelling units.

The project, called Deering Village, would add over 100 new units of housing at a 4-acre site at 410-418 Auburn St., in an area that has traditionally been home to single-family houses.

But thanks to the passage of L.D. 2003, sweeping legislation enacted in 2022 that makes accessory dwelling units legal on all single-family lots statewide, the developers behind GreenMars real estate see a big opportunity to add what they say are sorely needed affordable homes while also pioneering a model of housing new to Maine.

GreenMars, co-founded by longtime friends Chris Marshall and Nate Green, is thought to be the first real estate company in Maine to capitalize on the legislation and propose large-scale housing developments with built-in accessory dwelling units.

The Deering Village project would include 90 one-, two- and three-bedroom condos split between nine buildings. Eighteen of the condos would include an attached studio apartment accessory dwelling unit that owners could use as an in-law apartment or a rental unit for supplemental income. Half of the units are designated as affordable.

Deering Village is nearly identical to Stroudwater Commons, the complex near the Portland International Jetport GreenMars proposed in June.

Both developments are possible largely through passage of L.D. 2003, which also creates an automatic density bonus that allows developers to build 2.5 times the number of units allowed under local zoning if they make at least half of the units affordable.

The legislation was critical, according to Marshall, because it “drastically alleviated” density limitations that were hampering development in the city.

“It really just opens up what you can build and the kind of density that you can build pretty much everywhere in Portland and it makes all these historic pieces of land off the peninsula that were previously unbuildable due to the current economic conditions and all of a sudden, it’s like, OK, you can get really creative and you can really start to make some projects work and add the housing that we need so badly,” Green added.

Nate Green, left, and Chris Marshall, co-owners of the real estate development company GreenMars, in June at the site where they plan to build Stroudwater Commons. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The two developments are the direct result of that policy change – they’ve proposed 180 units to be added to the city’s housing stock in places where they previously could have only built a handful of single-family homes, according to Green.

“Hopefully L.D. 2003 and these projects will be an inspiration for municipalities and legislators and people to say hey, actually, we can solve this housing crisis, we can make an impact, we can make change,” he said.

OTHER DEVELOPERS WILL FOLLOW 

GreenMars may be the first to explore the new opportunities but Marshall and Green are confident it won’t be the last. 

Although L.D. 2003 was passed in 2022, it didn’t go into effect until January. Marshall and Green “hit the ground running,” Marshall said, and had plans ready to go just six to eight months later.

“We like to think of ourselves as agile, being a smaller company, and perhaps we’re just the first to get here,” Green added. “I think some other developers are going to be submitting here in the next few months … it takes time to get these things moving.”

So far, the development has been focused in Portland, but Green said other areas could be well-suited for the higher-density projects they envision. Many towns, though, are still figuring out how to implement the legislation, while Portland was at the forefront.

If the state is going to solve the housing crisis, it’s critical that other towns and cities ease their zoning restrictions, which Marshall said are overly restrictive.

“We’ve got to think closely about this because we see the impact of it in cities like Portland, which is astronomical price increases (and) far fewer units being built,” he said.

Loosening the zoning “drastically alleviated” those limitations.

That’s not to say the city’s zoning is perfect – there are still restrictions like inclusionary zoning that many developers have said make Portland undesirable for new projects. But it’s a step in the right direction, he said.

The duo has tried to pick sites where adding multifamily homes in traditionally single-family neighborhoods isn’t too disruptive. It’s not just about adding housing, Marshall said, it’s about adding housing in the right locations. 

HOUSING FOR ‘NORMAL’ PEOPLE

In Deering Village, the 18 condos with attached accessory dwelling units would be market rate while 20% of the remaining condos would be reserved for people making 80% of the area’s median income (about $68,000 for a single person, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and 30% would be for people making 100% of the area’s median income (about $89,000 for a single person).

Marshall couldn’t say exactly what the pricetag will be once the units hit the market, but for the affordable units, “there will be some units that start with a 2, and there’ll be some units that start with a 3.”

But even the market rate units are designed to be “lowercase A affordable,” Marshall said.

“They’re intended to be accessible to normal people with normal incomes,” he said. “These are not meant to be luxury condos.”

Marshall and Green envision the condo and accessory dwelling unit combination as the “new age starter home.”

The pair seeks to increase access to homeownership, which they see as a ladder to building equity and therefore wealth.

As home prices, interest rates and the cost of home insurance have all increased, the typical white picket fence starter home has moved out of reach for many Mainers.

According to data from the Maine Association of Realtors, the median single-family home price in 2019 was $200,000. In June, the median sale price passed $400,000 for the first time. The price for multi-family buildings has also skyrocketed, with two- to four-unit homes increasing 64% from 2019 to 2023, according to Vitalius Real Estate Group.

Adding accessory dwelling units into the mix opens up the opportunity for supplemental rental income to help offset the cost of a mortgage, Marshall said.

“They’re meant to solve a lot of the challenges that are faced by people who are left out of the ladder of homeownership these days,” he said.

GreenMars plans to submit its plans to the city following a community meeting Wednesday.