Orleans To Break Ground On $7 Million Affordable Housing Project

ORLEANS – Fourteen affordable housing units will soon replace the former Masonic lodge on Main Street as part of a $6.8 million development scheduled to break ground by August.

The 1.5-acre property and the building, east of downtown near the intersection with Tonset Road, were sold July 10 by the affordable housing trust fund to the Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC). The execution of the deed was unanimously approved by the select board.

“This is a really exciting moment, but I’ll contain myself,” vice chair Kevin Galligan said prior to the $1 transfer. Chair Mark Mathison, whose daughter Alexis chairs the trust, recused himself from the vote.

The transaction follows more than three years of planning and fundraising, and clears the way for closing on the 107 Main St. development later this month.

The Universal Lodge bought the former Calvin Snow estate in 1922, and in 1974 built the temple that has stood dormant since the trust bought the property from Cape Abilities in 2020. The trust chose HAC to develop it the following year.

The nonprofit housing agency reports that it has assisted more than 6,000 people on Cape Cod with services to address the region’s housing crisis. For the Orleans purchase, HAC secured $3.5 million, which included state funding.

Prefabricated homes “are being delivered to the site almost immediately,” town counsel Michael Ford told the select board. Because “there are enormous upfront costs to pay for the pre-fabs,” HAC is requesting immediate access to the trust’s $876,000 project contribution. A $1 million grant from the community preservation committee will be parceled out over six months during construction, expected to be completed by fall 2025.

“It’s modular construction, so once we get started the onsite process will happen relatively quickly,” HAC chief executive officer Alisa Magnotta said by email following the sale.

The state’s Chapter 40B law, enacted more than 50 years ago, allows local zoning boards to approve developments in towns where affordable housing represents less than 10 percent of a town’s inventory. No town on Cape Cod has satisfied that threshold.

The statute requires that homes zoned affordable must be rented only to tenants earning less than 80 percent of the area median household income. In Orleans, that cutoff was $54,450 for a single renter in 2021, according to HAC. Nine of the 14 units slated for Main Street will be one-bedroom homes, each with a target monthly rent of $1,300.

A farmhouse style reminiscent of the original Snow property was designed by SV Design of Chatham. HAC expects demolition of the 50-year-old lodge to begin once permitting is finalized.

“I drive past this site every day and see the sad, vacant building that is there now,” Magnotta wrote. “I am looking forward to upgrading the neighborhood with this well-designed, small-scale redevelopment project.”