Fresh Fridays: Adaptive Reuse and Affordable Housing Development

This month’s Fresh Friday featured a group of panelists discussing the important topic of adaptive reuse and affordable housing development. Throughout New England and the US, there are publicly- and privately-owned buildings that no longer serve their original use – mills, churches, school buildings, and much more. As communities work to address the housing crisis, they are increasingly looking to these existing assets as potential affordable housing.

Facilitator and Panelists: The session was facilitated by Ali Steinberg of One Neighborhood Builders and featured the following panelists:

Lauren Canepari, Senior Project Director, WinnCompanies

Bob Azar, Deputy Director, Providence Planning Department

Alisa Augenstein, Senior Architectural Historian, The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc

Michelle Bleau, Director of Housing Development, One Neighborhood Builders

WinnCompanies’ Focus on Adaptive Reuse: Challenges and Successes

The discussion opened with Lauren Canepari’s perspective on adaptive reuse projects. WinnCompanies has completed several adaptive reuse projects for affordable housing developments, including several mill buildings throughout New England.

She outlined both the challenges and the “secret formula” that has led to their success, stating, “I think one difficulty, of course, is, this isn’t, you know, new construction where you build it to how it is. You have to fit your units, fit your development into the building, which can be complicated and can be difficult. And sometimes that means, you know, different unit sizes, 40-foot-wide hallways, you know, just different adaptations to get, you know, these beautiful buildings back into housing.”

Understanding the Differences between Historic Preservation and Adaptive Reuse

The discussion then shifted towards the difference between adaptive reuse and historic preservation for affordable housing. Alisa Augenstein outlined what differentiates the two, expressing, “Restoration preservation really focuses on maintaining your existing structure, not really making any changes. You’re not really repurposing it for anything. […] But what [historic] tax credits focus on is adaptive reuse. And it’s for all building types. We’ve been involved in public housing redevelopments, conversions of historic schools, office buildings, courthouses. It’s the gamut and qualifiers for historic credits, federal and state. In most states, your building must be at least 50 years old.”

Impact of new Rhode Island Laws on Adaptive Reuse Efforts

Recent changes in Rhode Island law through 2023 House Bill 6090 have loosened restrictions for adaptive reuse projects. Bob Azar highlighted how these policy updates will help overcome zoning challenges, emphasizing, “This is a new law that requires communities to allow for buildings that were originally built for nonresidential uses to be converted to mixed-use and particularly housing. At least half of the floor area of the project has to be for housing. And this could include conversion of a commercial building, industrial offices, schools, religious facilities, medical buildings, even malls. […] it’s a big deal because often communities will create, you know, separate zoning districts and not allow for residential, say in a commercial zone. But this law will sort of bypass any, any such restrictions.”

One Neighborhood Builders’ Role in Adaptive Reuse Developments for Affordable Housing

One Neighborhood Builders leverages adaptive reuse for some of its affordable housing developments. Michelle Bleau outlined some ongoing developments that utilize some form of adaptive reuse: “I’m going to highlight just three adaptive reuse projects that One Neighborhood [Builders] is working on, all of which do involve some level of historic preservation, as well. One is in Central Falls involving the adoptive reuse of an old police station paired with new construction. Another is in Cumberland involving the adaptive reuse of a church. And the third is in Providence involving the adaptive reuse of a mill building, also paired with new construction.”

Costs Consideration with Adaptive Reuse

Although adaptive reuse offers great potential, it also comes with its own set of financial challenges. Bleau highlighted some of the cost concerns inherent in such projects, noting,: “There is a level of unknowns and the potential cost that could be associated with these projects. Often times it isn’t until you are past the point of initial due diligence and further along in your design and permitting phases that you continue to uncover these unknowns associated with the design and construction that exists within these buildings. And so you really need to be able to conservatively and appropriately adjust your financing and budgets accordingly. And this does become increasingly, you know, more difficult with the limited resources for affordable housing development.”

The Updated Providence Comprehensive Plan and its Impact on Housing Access

Bob Azar provided an update on the City of Providence’s Comprehensive Plan, which includes a focus on housing production and reducing barriers to development.

Azar emphasized, “Housing really has been one of the center pieces of the plan. And through this plan, we’re looking for every opportunity to reduce barriers to housing production and adaptive reuse is one of many tools that that we have in our tool kit. […] so really what we try to do with the comprehensive plan is to focus and align all of our policies towards housing production, breaking down barriers to housing production and furthering fair housing throughout the city.”

The interaction Between Greener Building Methods and Historical Preservation in Affordable Housing

One Neighborhood Builders is dedicated to providing healthier and more equitable housing to the communities it serves. One aspect of healthier communities is utilizing greener building methods.

Bleau touched on this commitment while detailing some of the challenges with incorporating green building practices to adaptive reuse and historical preservation projects: “At One Neighborhood Builders we are committed to incorporating solar in all of our projects, but the addition to these panels on roofs may or may not be allowed given historic preservation requirements or potential load bearing concerns on the roof. So that’s just one example of kind of how you know, our organizational energy efficiency measures sometimes must be ‘adapted’ to, to adhere to adaptive reuse and or essentially elements of historic preservation.”

Q&A and Closing

In closing the discussion opened to a Q&A. Attendees asked questions around racial equity and its relationship with adaptive reuse developments, specifically regarding housing developments that are in historically low-income communities with no inclusion of affordable housing.

Previous Fresh Fridays Sessions:

Fresh Fridays: Adaptive Reuse and Affordable Housing Development

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