A lot of Newport residents were pretty confused about the redevelopment of the former Cranston Calvert School into apartments. There were lingering questions about whether the property was “affordable housing” or “workforce housing” or what. As someone who works every day on affordable housing development, I can tell you definitively that The Calvert is not “Affordable Housing” or “Workforce Housing” as defined in the housing industry, and those terms have been misused if not abused by the developer BCM Realty Partners (principal Conor Melville) and City officials. The only restriction on The Calvert is that it must be rental apartments instead of condominiums for sale. This is a modest benefit to the community as compared to other school building sales such as the Lenthal School that have become luxury condos. Rental apartments are more likely to be used by year round residents than luxury condos. However, there are no income eligibility requirements or rent limits at The Calvert and Mr. Melville is free to sell the building at any time.
In early 2023, the City Council solicited proposals for the purchase of the former Coggeshall School building. The City’s request stated that the proposals should provide “Workforce Housing.” In the housing industry, Workforce Housing has recently been renamed Middle Income Housing because the term Workforce Housing was the source of a lot of confusion. Middle Income Housing means housing restricted for rental or sale to people making incomes that are between 80% and 120% of the Area Median Income. Traditional “Affordable Housing” is defined as units restricted to people making incomes at 60% of Area Median Income or below. To my knowledge Newport does not currently have any Middle Income Housing units, or at least very few. There has been an increased focus statewide on the need for Middle Income Housing restricted units due to the rapid escalation of housing costs making housing unobtainable by even middle class residents. By 2022, RI Housing had released a subsidy program to provide $70k-$80k per unit toward the construction costs of building new Middle Income Housing units.
In July of 2023, the City Council voted to select BCM Realty Partners / Mr. Melville as the “winning bid” for the redevelopment of the Coggeshall School property on Van Zandt into apartments. Mr. Melville’s proposal for Coggeshall followed almost exactly the same model as The Calvert. The proposal stated that the only restrictions that would be accepted on the property were for it to be apartment rentals. During public meetings at the time, I and other residents requested that the City require Mr. Melville to actually accept long-term legal restrictions that the property must be limited to middle class tenants and rents. The City and Mr. Melville were made aware by residents of the RI Housing subsidy program for Middle Income Housing.
Now, after over a year of no public announcements on the status, the Purchase & Sale Agreement between the City and BCM has appeared with less than a week’s notice on the City Council’s agenda for Wednesday Dec 11th. The terms of the Agreement appear to be almost exactly the same, if not slightly worse for the City, after more than a year of “negotiation.” This is a pretty frustrating result. The City Solicitor’s memo that accompanies the proposal does not provide assurances that the City or Mr. Melville made a satisfactory effort to actually provide the City and its residents with Middle Income Housing as the City’s own request originally stated. Instead, the deal looks worse for the City, in that the minimum required rental term on the units is inexplicably now further defined as only 9 months, not annual leases.
If the Council votes to accept this sale on Wednesday, they will have voted for a proposal that does not meet the original RFP. If the City wants Middle Income Housing, they should seek a developer who is willing and able to make that happen. If the City wants to sell the property for market rate rental, the administration should issue a new RFP that accurately states that opportunity and provides an opportunity for market rate bids on the property. The current sale price of $1,000,000 seems low for market rate apartment units. The mismanagement of terminology for this property RFP, as it was for The Calvert, is a disservice to the community.
Penny Billington Hunt, Newport
