Crocker Bank Redeveloped as 48-Unit Affordable-Housing Apartment Building.

TURNERS FALLS, MA-A turn-of-the-century bank building that eventually became a boarding house before a fire all but demolished it has literally risen from the ashes. The new structure comprises 48 units of affordable housing in western Massachusetts.

Joan Bernstein, assistant director of the Franklin County Regional Housing and Development Authority, directed the project. Bernstein tells Globest.com that construction was done by Rural Development Inc. a local non-profit organization that builds low-income housing in the Franklin County area. The Bank building, which is complete, also includes approximately 4,000 sf of office space. Two spaces are being leased to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and Bernstein says the third space has just been leased to Greenfield Community Television Inc., the local Public Access Television station, for a new studio. All of the landmark row housing will be converted to residential use. The overall construction budget was estimated to be about $4.5 million.