AUBURN — A plan to renovate the 1-acre Dillingham & Son funeral home lot on Spring Street for a mix of subsidized and market-rate housing will go public Tuesday.
Richard Whiting, executive director of the Auburn Housing Authority, said the project should revitalize that part of the downtown, bringing new people and retail development to the area.
“We need to start building our downtown back,” Whiting said. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow, but we’re talking about combination of market-rate units, commercial space for rent — preferably retail — and then some tax credit supported housing units.”
The city and the housing authority have scheduled a news conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the site, 62 Spring St., to discuss the details of the project.
The property is about 1 acre and is across from Camden National Bank and the Hannaford supermarket.
Whiting said plans call for removing the old brick building, and making a new parking area for the Engine House building at the corner of Court and Spring streets.
The new housing units would be built somewhat farther south along Spring Street.
Whiting said the development would have at least 30 housing units, with eight units for rent at a market rate. It would include retail space on the ground floor facing Spring Street.
“At the Roak Block, we have commercially rentable units and we’ve been able to get a couple of retail businesses in there,” Whiting said. “We’re trying to bring back the old concept of a downtown, where you actually have people walking and supporting neighborhood businesses and bringing them back downtown.”
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