Progress stalled on the 16-unit condominium development planned for the former site of Woodman’s Florist in Peterborough after owner EAM Holdings relisted the property at the end of 2020. However, a number of potential buyers have expressed interest in taking up the project, realtor Andrew Peterson said on Monday.
“It’s arguably the best location in the town of Peterborough to do a development,” Peterson said of the 6¼-acre property at 69 to 75 Concord St., which is walking distance from downtown and has access to town water, sewer, and good internet.
In June 2018, EAM Peterborough Holdings LLC bought the Woodman’s property for $450,000, according to town property records. In November 2019, they successfully received all the necessary local permits to build 16 homes, accessed by a private loop road. Although they demolished one of the two buildings on site in the following months, “the process … slowed” by the following summer, project engineer Chad Branon told the Ledger-Transcript in May 2020, as the developers waited on permits from the Department of Environmental Services and the Department of Transportation to come through. By the end of 2020, “they decided to move ahead and sell it as an approved project,” Peterson said. It’s currently listed at $700,000, down from $900,000, he said.
An apartment building with four units remains on site “in decrepit condition,” Peterson said, and the site’s approved plans still call for demolishing it.
Currently, the proposed Walden Ecovillage subdivision is the only active housing project before the Peterborough Planning Board with the potential for more than 20 units, according to July minutes from the Economic Development Authority’s affordable housing subcommittee.