Shovels went into the ground Oct. 9 on a new building in Burlington's New North End, and when it's done, 30 Vermont households will get a shot at owning a home for around $200,000.
Champlain Housing Trust is building the Shale Beach Condominiums in the Cambrian Rise neighborhood on North Avenue. All 30 homes will be sold through the trust's shared equity homeownership program, which keeps them permanently affordable, according to the trust's announcement.
The anticipated final prices range from $175,000 to $210,000. Construction is targeted to wrap up, with owners moving in, by the end of 2027.
What's going up
The building will have five floors with 30 parking spaces underneath. Each floor holds four two-bedroom homes and two three-bedroom homes, for a total of 20 two-bedrooms and 10 three-bedrooms. The two-bedroom homes are about 1,000 square feet, and the three-bedrooms are just over 1,400 square feet, the trust said.
Every home gets two bathrooms and washer and dryer hookups. Amenities include a storage closet for each home, bike storage on the ground level, and a fifth-floor community room and deck. The building will be highly energy efficient, with electric air-source heat pumps for heating and cooling. Cambrian Rise sits on the GMT bus line and the Burlington bike path, the trust noted.
Wright and Morrissey is serving as construction manager, and Duncan Wisniewski Architecture handled the design. The same team worked on 100 Cambrian Way next door, a new 40-apartment building developed by the trust and Evernorth that is opening in November 2026.
Under the shared equity model, the trust keeps ownership of the land and buyers purchase only the home, at a reduced price. When they sell, they split the appreciation with the trust, which keeps the home affordable for the next buyer, WCAX reported.
"This is a wealth-building tool for generations, not just for the first family, but for every family after," Champlain Housing Trust CEO Michael Monte told the station. The trust says the program has helped almost 1,500 Vermonters become homeowners over the past 40 years.
The financing is unusual for for-sale housing. The trust worked with Smith NMTC Associates to use federal New Markets Tax Credits, which it says have been used only once before for building homes for sale in Vermont. The credits, committed by Mascoma Community Development and Community Housing Capital and purchased by U.S. Bank's Impact Finance, cover roughly 20% of the development cost. Sen. Peter Welch's office described the project as using $20 million in New Markets Tax Credits.
The City of Burlington is putting $900,000 into the project through its Housing Trust Fund. "Shale Beach shows what's possible when we invest in making homeownership accessible to more people," Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak said in the announcement.
Other money comes from the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, state and federal grants allocated by the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, gifts from EastRise Credit Union and the Argosy Foundation, and energy incentives from Burlington Electric Department. According to Welch's office, a majority of the condos will be sold to buyers earning at or below 80% of area median income.
"This development brings jobs to the community and builds Burlington's tax base," Monte said in the announcement.
The trust also noted that Vermont's Local Investment Advisory Committee approved financing through Treasurer Mike Pieciak's office for the overall neighborhood infrastructure being developed by Eric Farrell.
Why it matters for Contractors
Shale Beach is a midsize residential job of the kind Burlington needs more of: a five-story building over structured parking, with 30 homes, two baths apiece, heat pumps throughout and shared amenity space on top. That means steady work for concrete, framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and finish trades from now through the end of 2027.
It also shows a financing tool contractors don't often see on homeownership jobs. By the trust's count, this is only the second time New Markets Tax Credits have been used to build homes for sale in Vermont. It's worth knowing how these layered deals come together, since funding is often what decides whether an ownership project ever goes out to bid.
Cambrian Rise keeps adding buildings. With 100 Cambrian Way opening in November 2026 and Shale Beach now underway, subcontractors and suppliers who already know the neighborhood and the construction manager are well placed for future phases.