Residential projects in Keene, Troy to receive federal funding

Nov. 3—The N.H. Executive Council on Wednesday approved $50 million in federal pandemic money to help fund 30 residential projects, including one each in Keene and Troy.

This is part of Gov. Chris Sununu's InvestNH program to increase the number of affordable rental units in New Hampshire. Business leaders say the state's current vacancy rate of less than 1 percent is driving up the cost of rents and making it hard for workers to find housing.

Under the funding approved Wednesday, the projects need to be finished in 18 months and contain a certain number of units affordable to those making at or below 80 percent of median income.

In Cheshire County, this percentage equates to about $50,000 annually for a single person. Rents and utilities are required to cost no more than 30 percent of that income.

The two projects awarded funding in Cheshire County are at 310 Marlboro St. in Keene, which will receive $3 million for 57 units, 15 of them designated as affordable, and $948,000 for 29 affordable apartments at the former Troy Mills.

In Keene, plans call for adding three more stories to an 80,000-square-foot, two-story former paintbrush factory constructed in 1947.

Also the former site of Precitech, the building has previously housed River Valley Community College and Monadnock Family Services, but was turned into a micro-business incubator space years ago. It now has a number of commercial tenants.

In Troy, the property at 30 Monadnock St. is made up of factory buildings constructed between 1920 and 1995 following closure of an earlier mill on the site that made horse blankets for Union soldiers during the Civil War.

Later, the mill produced vehicle fabrics for automakers like Toyota and Ford before it closed in 2001, with its operator filing for bankruptcy two years later.

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567.