A new 60-unit apartment complex is opening in downtown Bath, adding more housing in a city and region that desperately need it.
The redeveloped complex at the corner of Front and Summer streets, called The Uptown after a movie theater that was once there, will be reserved for residents who are 55 and older. In total, it will add 50 rental units to 10 that were in the structure before it was redeveloped.
Forty-two of them will be for low-income renters, according to the project’s developer, The Szanton Company.
The housing shortage that’s affecting all Maine communities is particularly serious in the midcoast, making it harder for workers in the region to find places to live. Among other communities trying to build more housing is St. George, where voters will decide next week whether to give away town-owned land to build new homes.
The new development in Bath, which will have a grand opening on Wednesday, joins another project that Bath Housing has been working to develop at 520 Centre St. in recent years.
The first phase of the Bath Housing project will bring 18 rental units for low-income residents, and the second phase is expected to include an additional 24 units of single-bedroom rentals for a range of incomes, according to Executive Director Debora Keller.
Any additional housing will go a long way to easing the crisis, Keller said.
She noted that The Uptown will help preserve the historic Moses and Columbia Block buildings which were constructed in 1893 and redeveloped for the project, after Bath Housing acquired the properties in 2019 and sold them in 2022 to The Szanton Company.
The buildings have also hosted shops, the movie theater and a YMCA over the years, and they will continue to maintain six retail spaces now that they’ve been redeveloped. Keller says the new housing option will make it easier for residents to live within walking distance of a number of downtown amenities.
“I just think this is one of the neatest housing projects I’ve seen in years,” Keller said.
Rental prices on the apartments will range from $794 to $1,495 per month, depending on residents’ income, according to The Szanton Company. Most of the units are one-bedroom apartments, while six of them are two-bedrooms.