If you've parked behind Yarmouth Town Hall lately, you've probably noticed things are changing. Construction started the week of Oct. 5 on 18 affordable one-bedroom apartments on the southern part of the Town Hall lot, and the town and its partners held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site on Thursday, Oct. 8.
The project, known by its address, 36 Cleaves Street, is being developed by 36 Cleaves Street, LLC. According to the town's construction notice, the developer is putting up two buildings at the same time, with one parking space for each apartment. Projected rent is $1,801 a month, utilities included, and housing applications are expected to open in 2027.
It's a small job by big-city standards, but it's a real one, and it's going to run straight through a Maine winter.
The schedule
The town laid out a timeline that any builder can appreciate:
- Site work and excavation: about 3 months
- Foundations: about 1 month
- Framing: about 3 months
- Closed in: buildings expected to be enclosed by January 2027
Overall, construction is expected to take about 12 months. Typical site hours are roughly 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with no work on Sundays or holidays. The site will be fenced the whole time, there's no nighttime lighting planned, and Cleaves Street will be swept as needed to keep dust and dirt down. The town says traffic impacts should be limited, with signs and traffic control used when necessary, and people walking, biking or driving on Cleaves Street will keep their access unless otherwise noted.
Questions go to Bob Johnson, the project's site manager. The town's notice doesn't name a general contractor, and we couldn't find one named publicly.
Who's behind it and how it works
According to MaineHousing's October board report, 36 Cleaves Street is a 2024 project under MaineHousing's Rural Affordable Rental Housing Program. The development team includes Kara Wilbur and Brad Moll, who worked with the town to buy the site at a discount. The town is also putting money in through a municipal housing trust fund.
MaineHousing describes the project as two two-story buildings, one with eight apartments and one with 10, all one-bedroom. One apartment will be fully accessible to ADA requirements, and the rest of the ground-floor units will be Type B adaptable so they can be modified for residents' needs down the road.
Town planning documents from the January 2025 Planning Board review put the site at about 0.39 acres carved out of the rear Town Hall parking lot. Those plans proposed covering the required parking through a shared parking agreement with the town. A draft tax increment financing program the town prepared around the same time said the apartments would be restricted to households earning no more than 80% of the area median income, under a long-term covenant that comes with MaineHousing's rural program money.
Town Hall visitors will feel the squeeze for a while. The town says parking will be reconfigured during construction and permanently adjusted when the project is done. Eight spaces are being set aside as 30-minute parking, four near the accessible spaces behind Town Hall and four out front, and the ballot drop box is moving from the rear lot to the front horseshoe lot near Memorial Green and Cleaves Street.
The town called the project the result of "years of collaboration, planning, and community commitment to expanding housing opportunities for those who live and work in Yarmouth." Construction updates and a Q&A will be posted by the Yarmouth Housing Collaborative, the local group that organized the groundbreaking.
Projects like this one are built on a different model than the big tax credit jobs. The town contributes discounted land and trust fund money, MaineHousing's rural program brings the state subsidy, and a local team does the developing. It's a way to get 18 apartments onto a corner of a town parking lot without waiting for a big developer to come along.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is the kind of job a lot of Maine contractors are built for: two small apartment buildings, a tight village site and a schedule that pushes framing into late fall and winter. Excavation and site crews are up first, followed by foundation and framing crews, then roofing, siding, windows and MEP subs once the buildings are closed in around January. After that, interior trades will be working through the rest of the year. MaineHousing's pipeline shows other 18-unit rural program projects in places like Rumford, Rockport, Houlton and Rangeley, so it pays to know the developers doing them and to keep your crew ready to build through a Maine winter.