Exterior rendering of a home to be by TMBR at the Northern Forest Center’s Timber Way development in Greenville, Maine.
New award from U.S. Forest Service to develop housing sites and advance mass timber
Center secures funds to continue predevelopment of 4 housing sites across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.
The Northern Forest Center is paving the way for the construction of approximately 175 single-family homes and duplexes to be built in four new mass timber neighborhoods across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York through a $300,000 wood innovations grant awarded by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in August.
“There is a critical need for cost-effective housing in rural Northern Forest communities,” said Joe Short, vice president of the Northern Forest Center. “This is an incredible opportunity to work on that challenge and at the same time demonstrate and create demand for small-scale mass timber homes. In addition to housing, at full build-out these neighborhoods would create demand for more than 3 million board feet of domestically sourced mass timber.”
With the funding, the Center plans to complete predevelopment work — which can include projects such as site design, site engineering and environmental assessments — for at least one mass timber housing development in each of the four Northern Forest states. Potential locations include Bethel or Millinocket, Maine; Gorham or Berlin, New Hampshire; St. Johnsbury, Vermont; and Elizabethtown, Indian Lake, or Saranac Lake, New York.
“Many towns and villages across the Northern Forest have struggled with the decline of the resource-driven economy that once fueled prosperity,” said Maura Adams, director of community investment. “We hear over and over again from our community partners that housing is a critical need as they try to revitalize their economy and downtown district. Rural healthcare, schools, and other institutions just cannot attract employees because of the lack of workforce housing.”
The Center’s industry partner on this project is TMBR. The Center has partnered with TMBR for two years to develop preconfigured, high-performance, low-cost homes using mass timber framing components. Mass timber is a family of engineered wood products that combines smaller pieces of wood into stronger, structural components. The construction of the first TMBR homes are now underway as part of Timber Way, the Center’s 24-unit development in Greenville, Maine.
“We’ve taken a wood-first approach across all of our housing projects to promote innovative wood products and support the region’s forest-based economy,” said Mike Wilson, senior program director at the Center who is helping oversee the Timber Way development in Greenville. “As we enter the construction phase with TMBR at Timber Way, we’re excited to see how this model can be replicated across the region, bringing beautiful homes and meaningful solutions to communities across the Northern Forest.”
The Center is also in its final phase of creating nine apartments in a new building that will open this fall in Tupper Lake, New York, that uses some mass timber components. The Center has successfully developed new housing in historic buildings in Millinocket and Bethel, Maine; Lancaster, New Hampshire; and St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
The U.S. Forest Service announced in $105.5 million in wood innovation grants for 177 projects in 44 states and Washington, D.C., in August. The U.S. Forest Service noted the grants include $31 million for 113 wood innovation projects, $17 million for 23 community wood projects, and $57 million for 41 wood products infrastructure assistance projects. For a complete list, visit the USFS.
