Center Purchases Tupper Lake Properties to Improve Housing Options
In August, the Center acquired two buildings in Tupper Lake, N.Y., to improve housing options in the community. Our planned renovations of the two buildings – 179 and 185 Park Street – will stabilize and improve nine housing units as attractive, quality long-term rentals. Exterior improvements will also help improve the eastern gateway into town.
“We are expanding our property redevelopment work because of the critical need for housing for the local workforce,” said Maura Adams, director of Community Investment. “Lack of quality rental housing limits economic development potential in many Northern Forest communities, and we see similar trends in Tupper Lake and other Adirondack communities,” she said. “We hope that this move can set a positive example and demonstrate meaningful progress on a problem that sometimes feels intractable.”
“Since we released our Attracting New Residents strategy over a year ago we have been working to create the conditions to recruit and retain young people in Adirondack communities, including Tupper Lake,” said Leslie Karasin, Adirondack program director. “In Tupper Lake, this has meant engaging in a wide number of community initiatives, but buying these buildings is our first physical investment in the future of the community. We are so pleased to make this important step, and we are grateful for the support and encouragement we’ve received from members of the community.”
With this purchase, the Center is building on a successful track record developed through the Millinocket Housing Initiative in Millinocket, ME and the Parker J. Noyes building in Lancaster, NH. In all of these projects, the Center strives to maximize multiple community benefits: developing quality housing, enhancing walkable communities, building community pride, and creating attractive downtowns. 
This Park Street project in Tupper Lake will follow the same model. The Center will convert 179 Park Street, known in the community as the former Plaza Hotel, to attractive apartments, and will improve 185 Park Street, a single-family residence, as a long-term rental. Since both buildings are prominently situated on the eastern gateway into the community, the upgrades will be highly visible.
This project has been recommended to the state by the local Project Advisory Committee as part of the slate of projects recommended for funding through the community’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Funding decisions are anticipated from New York State sometime in the coming months.
“Funding from the Downtown Revitalization Initiative will help us complete the project more quickly and enable us to invest sooner, and more, in comparable projects in Tupper Lake and elsewhere in the Adirondacks,” said Adams.
The Center is grateful to the many community partners who have encouraged and supported this work, as well as to those who have helped make it financially viable by investing in the Northern Forest Fund. The Center’s Northern Forest Fund is helping communities increase their ability to attract new residents. The Fund is fueling the Center’s redevelopment work focused on quality in-town housing and mixed-use properties and supporting Center programs that enhance recreation assets, create Community Forests, support businesses, help market the region, and more.
Anyone with questions about the Center’s work in Tupper Lake is encouraged to reach out to Adirondack Program Director Leslie Karasin at lkarasin@northernforest.org.
