Chen building to be renovated into apartments | Haverhill news

HAVERHILL — In addition to receiving state money to construct veterans housing on Washington Street, the city will also be getting state money to renovate the last remaining downtown eyesore.

As part of a state award of $72 million in housing subsidy funds and both state and federal tax credits, 62 units of housing will soon be built at 98 Essex St., a structure often referred to as the Chen building.

City officials are confident that renovating a blighted building with the new housing will not only raise the values of all nearby properties, but will also make apartments at the nearby Hamel Mills and Cordovan buildings easier to market once they become available.

The project is being sponsored by the Affordable Housing and Services Collaborative Inc. of Braintree. The city of Haverhill will also be providing money toward the project.

It is one of 25 projects in 17 Massachusetts communities receiving state housing money.

Of the 62 prospective units, a majority will be either one- or two-bedroom apartments, with a spattering of three-bedroom units. Seven of the apartments will be reserved for households earning less than 30 percent of the city’s median income.

On top of the 98 Essex project, the state has also granted money to the nonprofit Coalition for a Better Acre to knock down the vacant Gerson Furniture building at 128 Washington St. and build 44 units of new veterans housing.

The total amount both of these projects will receive from the $72 million state grant has yet to be determined, but Andrew Herlihy, the city’s division director of Community Development, said Friday it will be a significant amount for two projects that have been waiting a long time for state help.

“It will be over seven figures,” Herlihy said of the state aid. “Haverhill had two projects up for consideration in this round of state one-step housing, and both were approved.”

Herlihy said the city has been waiting three years for state money to be put toward the Chen building.

Mayor James Fiorentini said the tax credits will allow the Chen project to go forward and added that the first floor of the building will be dedicated to commercial space.

“We’re hoping that a restaurant will go in there,” said Fiorentini, adding that the new housing will be connected to the city’s intermodal parking center in Railroad Square. “Without that garage, a development like this wouldn’t be possible and vice versa. The housing and the adequate parking is a symbiotic relationship.”

“It is the last remaining eyesore in the downtown, and now folks walking to the downtown won’t have to look at it,” he added.

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