City Eyes 3 Fair Haven Home Rehabs

City plans to buy a medical office building and a vacant three-family house on Grand Avenue for $440,000 moved ahead — as part of a larger publicly funded effort to convert three buildings on a Fair Haven block into six units of new housing.

Those proposed purchases received unanimous votes of support Wednesday afternoon during the latest Zoom-assisted meeting of the Livable City Initiative’s Property Acquisition and Disposition Committee (PAD).

The committee members unanimously recommended approval of the city’s planned purchase of a three-story medical office building at 350 Grand Ave. for $155,000.

They also backed the city’s proposed purchase of an adjacent vacant and boarded-up three-family house at 346 Grand Ave. for up to $285,000.

Both proposed property deals would be between the city and Fair Haven Community Health Care, which has its headquarters nearby at 374 Grand Ave.

The local community health center currently owns and uses the 350 Grand Ave. medical office building. The health center also has an option to buy the blighted residential structure at 346 Grand Ave. from owner Frank Sacco.

If the city wins approval to purchase 346 and 350 Grand Ave. from Fair Haven Community Health Care, LCI’s Property Acquisition and Disposition Coordinator Evan Trachten said on Wednesday, LCI would then move to out six new units of housing on the block.

Two units are planned for the current medical office building at 350 Grand Ave.

Two units are planned for the current boarded-up and fire-damaged three-family home at 346 Grand Ave.

And another two units are planned for the current vacant and boarded-up single-family home at 342 Grand Ave., which the city has owns for three years. (Click here for a previous story about how the city once planned, but never followed through on, selling that foreclosed home to Fair Haven Community Health Care for $2,000.)

Furthermore, Trachten said Wednesday, all three of these planned residential rehabs would be made available to homeowner occupants making between 60 and 100 percent of the area median income (AMI).

That owner-occupancy and income deed restriction would stay with each of the three properties for at least 20 years.

And the future owners of these homes would then be able to rent out the second unit in their respective houses to low-to-moderate income tenants.

“The city has been talking with the clinic for months about LCI doing a residential development at this end of the block that will help strengthen the block as the clinic builds a new building at the end of the street,” Trachten said, referring to future development plans the health center may have for the stretch of Grand Avenue closer to James Street.

“Fair Haven Community Health Care is very invested in our community and we want to ensure that attractive, affordable housing is available to Fair Haven residents, now and in the future,” Fair Haven Community Health Care CEO Suzanne Lagarde told the Independent by email Wednesday when asked about the proposed property sales. ​“We see this collaboration with the city as an important first step and we look forward to working closely with both the City and the Fair Haven community to bring this to fruition.”

Opportunity To ​“Transform” The Block

Trachten explained to the committee members that, while the 346 and 350 Grand proposed purchases are technically two separate deals, they are really part of one larger city plan to build out new owner-occupied homes on the block.

A city-hired appraiser recently valued 346 Grand Ave. as worth $230,000, he said, and 350 Grand Ave. as worth $375,000. Given that the community health center is willing to sell those properties to the city for $285,000 and $155,000 respectively, he continued, that ​“165,000 in equity” the city would realize across the two deals.

Why is the health center interested in selling the medical office building at 350 Grand Ave. for so much less than its market value? asked city Small Business Development Officer Clay Williams.

“Because they really want us to do the project,” Trachten replied. The health center recognized the good work that LCI has done in developing affordable owner-occupied homes on Winchester Avenue, among other places, he said. ​“I think there was a level of trust and comfort, and the fact that we already own the corner piece [at 342 Grand], it just made a whole lot of sense.”

Given that the city plans to overpay for the vacant three-family house at 346 Grand Ave., East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked, what would the renovation costs be? And what about the rehabbed property’s resale value?

Trachten said he didn’t have the estimated rehab cost numbers yet. But, he confirmed for Festa, the fixing up and ultimate sales of these three prospective residential properties is not designed to bring the city a profit. At least, not a financial profit.

“It’s a neighborhood stabilization and affordable housing project,” Trachten said. ​“We think there’s more community benefit and value than just what we’re going to take in. It’s not a money-making endeavor. It’s what the city does when it does these projects. We stabilize and put in long-term ownership” opportunities.

And with the health center already down the block at James Street, he said, these proposed residential developments could really ​“transform” this section of Grand Avenue.

The proposed public purchases of 346 and 350 Grand Ave. now advance to the City Plan Commission, and then to the LCI Board of Directors, and then to the Board of Alders for further discussions and votes. The Board of Alders, which has the final say on whether or not to approve the city’s purchases of these properties, could take place as early as November.