Kittery Foreside development approved: Here's plan for offices, affordable housing

KITTERY, Maine — The vacated two-story Foreside building once owned by James Dineen will be demolished and replaced with a new mixed-use, three-story building. The proposal has been approved by the town's Planning Board. And soon, the property will have a new owner.

The board on Thursday, Feb. 22 unanimously greenlighted the razing of the dilapidated 3 Walker St. building abutting the Dance Hall, paving the way for three residences, offices and a rooftop deck to be built in its place. The current owner of the site and applicant behind the project is The Cheney Companies, a Newmarket, New Hampshire apartment rental agency, which purchased the property in September 2022 from the town.

Approved plans call for the project’s designer, Winter Holben architecture + design at nearby 7 Wallingford Square, to move into the new building. The space dedicated to the firm in the plan will include its offices, a kitchenette, conference room, multiple restrooms and a community artist gallery just outside Winter Holben’s offices.

Winter Holben’s involvement in the project doesn’t stop there. According to Brandon Holben, the company’s principal architect, he and firm principal and chief executive officer Elisa Winter Holben are working to buy the property from The Cheney Companies and shepherd it through the redevelopment process.

More Kittery development: Apartments, hotel, restaurant coming as outlets plaza will be demolished

“We’re really passionate about this project because we’ve been thinking about it for many years. We’ve been looking for a home to call our own in the Foreside after renting for many years,” Elisa Winter Holben told the Planning Board previously in January. “We were looking for the perfect location. After working with the owner on the project, we realized this was a perfect location for our firm and such an important piece of the Foreside, which we really love. We would love to call it our home and it would really support our business growth as longtime business owners and also participants in our community.”

Details on Winter Holben's project at 3 Walker St. in Kittery

Aside from the office, the new structure at 3 Walker St. is approved for two affordable rental apartments — a studio and a one bedroom unit — in addition to one market-rate unit.

A memo from Brandon Holben notes the two affordable units “will be of the same quality, material, and finish as the market rate unit.”

“Based on the 2023 MaineHousing Rent Restricted Programs charts, the rent for these units are targeted at 60% (of the area median income). These rents are calculated to be $1,279/month for the studio and $1,371/month for the one-bedroom, respectively,” he wrote. “Both affordable units are located on the southern side of the building, providing optimal daylighting.”

The studio unit will be 357 square feet and the one-bedroom unit will be 537 square feet, according to the approved plan.

Both of the affordable housing units will be located on the ground level of the mixed-use building. The market rate unit will be built on the third floor.

Lane Cheney, principal of The Cheney Companies, was represented at Thursday’s meeting by Eric Weinrieb, president of Altus Engineering in Portsmouth.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kittery Foreside development approved at 3 Walker St.