TOPSHAM

A shuttered, deteriorating nursing home on Elm Street will be razed to make way for “much-needed affordable senior housing for the Topsham area,” the town said in a news release issued Wednesday.

River Landing — a new three-story, 36-unit affordable senior housing development project — will break ground in the spring.

The project is a partnership of and owned by Keven Bunker of Portland-based Developers Collaborative, which has completed several affordable housing projects in Maine; Matt Teare of Seacoast Management, and developer John Wasileski.

Seacoast first went to the town in March with a proposal to tear down the former Amenity Manor at 29 Elm St., to build affordable senior housing in its place.

With The Highlands located nearby, “We would drive by it every day and there it sits, and starts to look worse and worse,” Matt Teare of Seacoast Management told The Times Record in August. “Eventu- ally we said, ‘We can solve that problem.’”

Voters approved a taxincrement financing district for the site at a town meeting Sept. 25. Developers sought the tax breaks as part of their application to the Maine State Housing Authority to get low-income housing tax credits they said were necessary to make the project affordable to renters.

In November, MaineHousing told River Landing Housing LLP its bid for the competitive tax credits was successful. The project also won all neccessary approvals from the town’s Historic District Commission and Planning Board.

John Shattuck, Topsham’s economic and community development director, told voters at the Sept. 25 town meeting the TIF allows the developer to secure tax credits that will provide capital to build the project.

Affordable housing TIFs overseen by MaineHousing are different than other TIFs he said: Money from the revenue sharing agreement doesn’t go back to the developer; it must be dedicated to operation of the facility to reduce rental costs.

“We’re very excited that the River Landing project will be moving forward,” Wasileski said, “especially as we believe it will be a great complementary facility to our existing projects at The Highlands and Highland Green.”

Topsham Town Manager Cornell Knight said, “It’s particularly rewarding when existing members of our business community partner with a company that’s new to Topsham to launch a major new project that will provide both economic and community development benefits.”

Developers Collaborative principal Kevin Bunker said, “We were most gratified by the willingness of town staff to help us navigate the local permitting process and by the broad public support for our project throughout the permitting process and at the September Town Meeting.”

Bunker, who lives in Brunswick, will be a coowner of River Landing and said this will be his seventh affordable housing project in seven years.

Already there has been interest expressed in the apartments, he said. Whether it is people who grew up in the neighborhood who have seen plans for how developers will work to fit the project into the historic context; or people who can’t afford to live in a retirement community, the project aims to offer affordable apartments for what Bunker said is a “pretty underserved population.”

“We’re very, very excited about it,” Bunker said, adding he expects the units to fill up quickly. “We have no concerns about the market.”

Town officials lauded the project for addressing several economic and community development goals — including enhancing the Historic District, increasing residential units and density downtown, providing affordable housing for seniors, supporting neighborhood-appropriate business development, improving downtown traffic flow, and expanding and connecting pedestrian and bicycle trails.

As 2013 winds up, Topsham is celebrating a big year of development.

Firehouse Subs opened Dec. 9 in a new three-unit plaza in the Topsham Fair Mall where a Mattress Firm also opened recently. A new Agren store opened on Mallett Drive — replacing stores in Brunswick and Waldoboro — in November. A Panera Bread opened in the Topsham Fair Mall in June. In July, Mallett Woods, a 47- unit housing subdivision, broke ground off Park Drive.

The River Landing groundbreaking is planned for May 2014.

The project is expected to be complete the following spring.

Monthly rental costs are anticipated to range from $600 for single-bedroom units to $900 for larger twobedroom apartments.

For inquiries, call The Highlands at 725-2650. For details about the project, call the Developers Collaborative at 766-1632. dmoore@timesrecord.com