Riverview Terrace is an 83-unit, scattered-site, senior affordable housing development in Westbrook, Maine. Building 1, at 21 Knight Street, features 58 apartments and was built circa 1973. Building 2, at 10 Liza Harmon Drive, features 25 apartments and was built circa 1983.
Originally developed as Public Housing, Riverview Terrace has been proudly operated for over 40 years by the Westbrook Housing Authority. However, following years of Federal budget cuts to public housing, Riverview Terrace faced mounting capital needs in a time of dwindling capital and operating assistance.
In 2015, Westbrook Housing partnered with Anew Development to pilot the HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD), which allows public housing to be privatized in the interest of preserving and enhancing affordable housing. The developers navigated RAD and pursued new capital investments. In 2018, the property underwent a nearly $7MM rehabilitation; bringing it into the 21st century by providing energy and life/safety improvements and general modernization.
Riverview Terrace was the first public housing property in Maine to be transitioned through the HUD RAD program and the developers’ successful navigation of this complex Federal program has provided a leading model for other public housing authorities across the state.
Renovations at Riverview Terrace provided numerous energy efficiency improvements from enhanced insulation and air-sealing to new windows and doors. These physical efficiency measures compound with the inherent transportation energy efficiencies that Riverview Terrace has always provided by virtue of its smart growth location in the heart of a major Westbrook/Portland service center area served by sidewalks and high frequency public bus service.
Westbrook Housing and Anew Development are grateful to the entire Riverview Terrace project team. Zachau Construction provided excellent planning and oversight as the project’s Construction Manager. CWS Architects, Ransom Consulting, and Peter Burke Landscape Architecture provided the innovative design and engineering services that physically transformed the property and the attorneys at Drummond Woodsum guided the project with expert legal counsel.
Funding the project required the blending of eight separate Federal, State and local funding sources. Such a complex capital stack could not be possible without the dedicated support of the project’s financial partners at MaineHousing, the Northern New England Housing Investment Fund, Gorham Savings Bank, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, the Westbrook Housing Authority, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the City of Westbrook, and the Cumberland County HOME consortium.
Thanks to the combined efforts of the entire Riverview Terrace team, these 83 units of quality senior housing have been renewed and repositioned to serve scores of future Westbrook area seniors for generations to come in an environment that supports them not just with financial security but with independence, comfort, safety, social connectivity, and health and well-being.
