Northern Forest Center breaking ground on new Greenville housing development

GREENVILLE — The Northern Forest Center, a regional nonprofit, is celebrating the official groundbreaking of its innovative 24-unit housing development Timber Way in Greenville with an on-site public event at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27.

The approximately $12.5 million Timber Way housing development (formerly known as the Spruce Street project) will feature a mix of single-family homes and duplexes, ranging from one to three bedrooms, in a clustered neighborhood designed to encourage community connections among residents.  

“We’re thrilled to be building new homes to address the real challenges facing middle-income people who want to live in Greenville and local employers struggling to recruit workers and grow their businesses,” Mike Wilson, senior program director for the Center, said. “It’s exciting, and we wouldn’t be where we are without the partnership we’ve had with the town of Greenville and other supporters.” 

The Center is working in partnership with TMBR, a mass timber design company, to create quality homes using an innovative mass timber system customized for rural places. The mass timber homes will feature open concept floor plans and range from roughly 1,000 to 1,600 square feet.  

“It is very exciting to see the construction phase of this project begin,” Margarita Contreni, president of the Moosehead Lake Region Economic Development Corp, said. “I recently visited the warehouse where the components of the future Timber Way homes are being made, and I am impressed with the design of the houses, their efficiencies, and how nicely they will fit with the surrounding wooded neighborhood.” 

The Aug. 27 event will mark the official groundbreaking for the Center’s housing project and celebrate the completion of the $1.4 million related public infrastructure expansion undertaken through a partnership between the Center and the town of Greenville, which included extending public water and sewer service to the property and constructing a new town road, Timber Way, on the property off Spruce Street in downtown Greenville.  Funding for the expansion came largely from a grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission.

“We are excited to see the infrastructure in place and construction beginning on the Northern Forest Center housing project,” Greenville Town Manager Michael Roy said. “The reconstruction of Spruce Street and the start of this housing development represent a significant investment in Greenville’s future.” 

The Center is contracting with Maine-based Sargent Corp. to conduct the private site work including underground utilities, site grading, and foundation pads for the first phase of 10 homes. Plans are for the first homes to be available for purchase or rent by fall 2026 and for all 10 Phase 1 homes to be completed in spring 2027.  

The Center’s goal is to provide quality housing that is affordable for middle-income, year-round residents to purchase or rent.

“These homes will be available for sale as primary, year-round residences, and long-term rental by people living full-time in the community,” Wilson said. 

The Aug. 27 event is an opportunity for community members, supporters, and staff and board of the Northern Forest Center to celebrate the work complete to date, mark the shift into the construction phase, and provide a preview of the new homes being constructed.  

It will take place on site on Timber Way in Greenville. The Center will have a tent set up and refreshments available. 

“For three decades, the Northern Forest Center has strengthened communities and changed lives: creating housing and jobs, attracting resources, and securing forests for public benefit,” Wilson said. 

The Center has successfully developed new housing in historic buildings in Millinocket and Bethel, Lancaster, New Hampshire and St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The Center is also in its final phase of creating nine apartments in a new building that will open this fall in Tupper Lake, New York, that also uses some mass timber components.  

The housing initiative builds on the Center’s other past and current work in the Moosehead Lake region, which includes funding for an Extended Learning Opportunity coordinator in the local high school, producing the new Moosehead Outdoor Recreation Investment Strategy, providing grants to for downtown businesses to improve storefronts, helping to redevelop the lakefront boardwalk and Crafts Landing Park and providing business innovation grants to tourism-related enterprises.  

The Center is an innovation and investment partner working across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Rooted in community, forest stewardship, and economic development, the Center is the only nonprofit delivering integrated, cross-state solutions in the region to help rural people and places thrive. Learn more at northernforest.org.