Possible Changes at Dexter Mill

By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWPORT — The Town of Newport Selectboard has voted to approve a Community Development Block Grant application for Occom Properties.

Occom, which is registered to four Occom Properties in Hanover, is looking to purchase the former Dexter Mill, located at 169 Sunapee Street.

Occom intends to renovate the former mill into mostly affordable housing for the town of Newport. The building will be rehabilitated into 70 units. An intended 25%, or a total of 14, of those units will be two bedrooms, while the remainder will be either one bedroom or studio apartments. A representative for Occom clarified that the facility would not be government funded or H.U.D housing, but rather based on market value at that time. 25% percent of the apartments will be at market value cost, while the remainder of apartments will be discounted at varying degrees.

The CDBG grant offers up to $500,000 annually for improvement projects, such as economic development and housing. Projects that are to receive funds must benefit a majority of people considered to have low or moderate income. Occom’s application would be for $500,000 with $25,000 being retained for administrative costs. The remaining $475,000 would go toward the purchase and renovation costs of the 169 Sunapee Street location.

For the property owner to receive the funds, they must come through a municipality, in this instance that would be Newport. According to town manager Hunter Rieseberg, a federal agency is unable to distribute money unless it were to come through a municipality first. While the application is on behalf of the town the town holds no liability if the project does not come to fruition. It was also stated by the representative from Occom that the funds will be a reimbursement, and should the property not be rehabilitated for any reason and the project not completed, the company would not receive the funds.

“He is assembling what is called a ‘funding stack’ and this is one piece. There are other pieces that are dependent on it. It’s kind of a jigsaw puzzle. I suspect there are probably two or three funding sources that are interdependent on the others. So if one was missing it could jeopardize the project,” Rieseberg said of the application process.

The 169 Sunapee Street property has a listed parcel value of $1,860,600. While the total cost of the project is roughly $20 million, that total includes “soft costs” which will not necessarily affect the market value of the building. Therefore, it is uncertain at this time how much the market value of the property will increase and how much the property tax will be affected. That $1.8 million total comes from a building value of $965,000, a features value of $777,800 and a land value of $117,800. The current listed owner of the property is 169 Sunapee Street LLC.

The Dexter Mill was built in 1905 and designed by Peterborough architect Edward A. Buss. In 1985 the property was listed in the National Register Of Historic Places.