Four New Units Planned For Route 6A

ORLEANS – By this time next year, a new mixed-use building on Route 6A is expected to provide four new units of market rate housing.

 The Coastal Companies recently broke ground at 177 Route 6A, which formerly housed another mixed-use building with apartments. The property was the site of a fatal fire in which a 6-year-old boy, Kyi Bourne, was killed in February 2023.

 Tim Klink, owner of the Eastham-based Coastal Companies, purchased the property in July 2023 with the goal of bringing new construction to the parcel.

 “For me, it’s just an investment project,” he said. “I always saw the potential for redeveloping that property with sewer now in Orleans and seeing the redevelopment that’s going on now in Orleans. So I bought it with the sole purpose of putting apartments in there.”

 Plans call for a new shingled building with four housing units on the second floor, which Klink says will be rented to his employees. In addition to the Coastal Companies, Klink also owns the Yardarm Restaurant on South Orleans Road.

 With the soaring cost of housing across the region, Klink said he believes local businesses should be doing what they can to provide housing for their employees instead of leaving the creation of new units solely to towns.

 “If you’re a successful business owner and you want to recruit qualified talent and you want to keep a good workforce on the Cape, you need to work to provide housing,” he said. “You can’t expect them to just live in some garage apartment somewhere.”

 Commercial space is planned for the building’s first floor, which Klink said he envisions leasing as office space.

 “I just don’t think the retail market exists in Orleans, unfortunately. I just don’t see it. But Class A clean office space…there’s definitely a demand for that.”

 In a press release, the Coastal Companies said plans also call for “enhanced life-safety systems and full code compliance.” The town’s building department in February 2023 cited a number of code violations in the former building in the aftermath of the fatal fire.

The project has secured all the necessary town approvals and permits, but it took some concessions for it to pass muster with the zoning board of appeals. The board voiced opposition to initial plans to build an additional two units in the proposed structure’s basement, noting that the town’s zoning bylaw does not allow units “below grade” at the location.

 Klink ultimately agreed to drop the basement units from the proposal. But he said with the new downtown housing overlay district that was adopted at the special town meeting in October, he’s exploring whether or not the additional units may now be allowable.

 “I definitely want to do some more research on that, because my intent is to build those two lower level apartments,” he said. Kink said he has reached out to George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development, to discuss whether or not the additional units are allowed.

 In an email Monday, Meservey said that the overlay district does not include “a categorical exclusion of units that are partially below grade.” He said that Klink has the option of going back through the special permitting process with the zoning board to reconsider the additional units under the new bylaw, but noted that the bylaw is still being reviewed through the Attorney General’s office.

 The former building on the site was demolished in the fall, and the new building’s concrete foundation is in the process of being poured. Klink said he expects construction to be completed in the winter of next year.

 “That’s our plan,” he said.