107 Main St. Housing Units Arrive

ORLEANS – Residents will see some activity at the site of the former Governor Prence Inn beginning this week. But that doesn’t mean that work to redevelop the 5.5-acre site into housing is underway.

Instead, the Prence property will be temporarily used as a staging area for another housing development that has broken ground at 107 Main St.

“Just in case people are wondering, Governor Prence is not being developed yet,” Kevin Galligan of the select board said during his board’s meeting on Jan. 8.

The board voted unanimously to enter into a contract with Housing Assistance Corporation, which is developing the Main Street parcel into 14 units of affordable housing, allowing the developer to use the Prence property to stage modular boxes from Jan. 14 through Feb. 14.

In a video update of the project, David Quinn of HAC said that the units are being built offsite in New York ahead of their delivery to Orleans.

“They’re going to be trailered from New York all the way to Orleans and be set over these foundations behind me over the course of a couple of days,” he said.

Select board chair Mark Mathison said that a crane on site at 107 Main St. will lift the boxes from the trailers and place them onto their foundations. Trailers will make runs from New York to the Cape and back with the additional boxes in the coming weeks, he said.

In an email update to the select board, Quinn said that while the boxes will begin arriving this week, they will be placed on their foundations on Jan. 21 through 23, and again on the 28th and 29th.

The 14 units planned for the site of the former Masonic Lodge include nine one-bedroom and four two-bedroom apartments as well as an additional three-bedroom unit. All units are reserved for residents who make up to 80 percent of the area median income in Barnstable County.

HAC is also partnering with Preservation of Affordable Housing and Habitat for Humanity Cape Cod in the redevelopment of the Prence property into affordable and workforce housing. But select board members last week favored placing signage on the Prence property to make clear that the activity on the property is related to work up the road at 107 Main.

“Even though it’s just a month, the amount of speculation and comments that will be generated will be a lot,” said Mefford Runyon of the select board.

Town Manager Kim Newman said that the town will put up signs and also use social media and the town newsletter, Town Talk, to inform residents and visitors about what is happening at both sites.

Michael Solitro, the town’s special projects coordinator, said that police traffic details will be accompanying the arrival of the boxes. In his email, Quinn said motorists can expect some temporary traffic delays on Main Street.

“So please be patient if your vehicle is caught behind one of these,” Solitro said. “It is not a common experience. It might be something interesting to see.”

Both 107 Main St. and the 62-unit Pennrose development that is also underway at the site of the former Cape Cod 5 headquarters on West Road are on track to be completed by summer, Solitro told the select board.