Additional housing is in the works at Haverhill’s Harbor Place complex, with 50 units planned for 60 Merrimack St., the building seen on the left of an architect rendering. (Courtesy photograph)
Fifty units of market rate housing are in the works on the grounds of Harbor Place, WHAV has confirmed. While discussions are still in early stages, Richard MacDonald, the director of city health and inspectional services, said the housing will be constructed in the 60 Merrimack St., footprint once occupied by Lahey Behavioral Health Services.
A site plan process is currently underway, allowing city departments including fire, police and engineering to address any preliminary concerns ahead of construction. That internal process could take a month or more, MacDonald said. Once the site planning is complete, permits will be issued and construction on the third Harbor Place building may begin.
The mixed-use Harbor Place, established in fall 2017, was developed on the grounds of the former Woolworth building through a partnership between the Planning office for Urban Affairs of the Archdiocese and the Greater Haverhill Foundation. Mixed-income housing, a satellite campus of UMass Lowell and newest tenants MTM Insurance and the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce are among those to call the five-story building home.
As WHAV previously reported, Harbor Place’s sponsors, under a consortium called Merrimack Street Acquisition, closed a deal to purchase 60 Merrimack St.’s former Lahey medical building for just under $2.5 million in March 2016. According to the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, the consortium has yet to file formal application paperwork to become eligible to receive a reduction in local property taxes and obtain state tax credits for this new project.