Five Proposals Submitted in Response to Mixed Use District Development RFP

Five proposals were submitted to the Town of Dunstable last Friday in response to the Request for Proposals that was issued in early January for development of the town-owned property in Mixed Use District (MUD). This development initiative is a key component of Dunstable's strategy for managing the production of affordable housing in compliance with the state regulations of Chapter 40B. According to the town's Planned Production Plan, this development should add as many as 40 units to Dunstable's affordable housing stock that would be certified over a two year period.

Proposals were submitted by the following organizations (listed in alphabetical order):

• Common Ground Development, Corporation, a Lowell-based non-profit housing development subsidiary of Community Teamwork, Inc. They are dedicated to meeting affordable housing needs in the Greater Lowell area.  Common Ground Development has managed the development of the Residences at Stony Brook in Westford, 205 Worthen Street in Lowell, and the Lowell Duplexes.
• Frank Gorman of Gorman Management Trust, a real estate developer with experience in large commercial and residential developments. Mr. Gorman has completed developments in Dracut and Salisbury, Mass. He has already been working with the town on the Salmon Brook Commons apartment complex and was granted comprehensive permit for that project last September.
• Harvest Fields Proposed LLC., managed by Mr. Skip Ciccarelli. Mr. Ciccarelli has assembled a team that includes Hancock Associates as the engineering firm, a Connecticut-based architect, Dante J. Boffi, and Cunningham Contracting as the General Contractor.
• MCO & Associates, Inc., which focuses on the development and distribution of affordable housing in conjunction with State sponsored programs, and Habitech Development LLC, which has been constructing neighborhoods and communities north and west of Boston for over 20 years. These two organizations are currently working together on the development of affordable housing through the Comprehensive Permit process in ten communities in eastern Massachusetts, including a project called The Villages in Stow.
• The Planning Office for Community Affairs, a non-profit developer operating under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston that has many years of experience in developing affordable and mixed income housing, such as the award winning Rollins Square development in Boston's South End. Their proposal was submitted in partnership with The Horsley Witten Group, an engineering consulting firm that specializes smart growth land use planning and environmental science.

The MUD Proposal Review Committee met last Tuesday to begin the process of reviewing each of the proposals to determine how well they would meet the requirements of the RFP. (The RFP can be downloaded from the Mixed Use District Development page of the Dunstable town website.) One member of the committee, Dr. Bill Moeller, had already spent over 10 hours in assessing which requirements had been met by each proposal. According to Dr. Moeller, none of the proposals met all of the requirements, but some came close. Other members of the committee had also spent a significant amount of time reviewing the material presented in the various proposals. They were quick to comment on the diversity of the submissions.

The review committee plans meet on Tuesday nights over the course of the next several weeks. Their goal is to present a recommendation to the Selectmen before June 19, which is the date that the Selectmen are scheduled to choose a developer to work with on the project.