AUBURN — A plan to tear down the old Dillingham Funeral Home downtown and replace it with a $6.5 million housing development will get city support.
Councilors voted 6-1 to create a tax increment financing package that will return 75 percent of new property taxes on a 46,000-square-foot housing and retail development on Spring Street.
“The important thing about tonight’s action is that it is going to make this project competitive in its application for tax credits,” said Roland Miller, Auburn’s director of economic development. “We know we have a project, but we don’t know if we’ll get the tax credits.”
Portland Developer Ethan Boxer-Macomber of Anew Development said the project is one of many applying for Maine State Housing Credits. Those credits can be sold to investors to help finance the project.
“Is it this fall or next spring or next fall? We don’t know now,” Boxer-Macomber said. “But we’ve pre-scored the project and we know generally what to expect. We are going to be very competitive.”
Boxer-Macomber said he expects to find out if the project will receive tax credits some time in December.
The L-shaped lot runs along the back of the Engine House building from Spring to Pleasant street and then back along Spring Street and the funeral home’s parking lot to the Key Bank ATM.
The funeral home buildings, on the northern end of the lot, would be removed, turning the space immediately behind the Engine House into a small, open-air plaza.
He would build a four-story development with 39 rentable housing units with retail, community space or office space on the first floor.
At least nine of the apartments would rent for a market rate and the rest would be subsidized.
Councilors voted unanimously in support of the project before realizing they had forgotten to hold a public hearing. They rescinded their vote and opened the floor to Auburn resident Joe Gray of Sopers Mill Road, who questioned the need for the tax incentive.
“We understand that they need the (Tax Increment Financing) to do this project, but nobody’s explained why we need to give them the TIF,” Gray said. “What does it do for Auburn, how does it help us and what is the occupancy rate of our local landlords? Why do we want to provide taxpayer money to compete against private landlords in the city?”
Councilors came back and approved the TIF, this time by a 6-1 margin. Councilor Tizz Crowley said she voted against it because she was not sure the public hearing had been properly advertised.
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