Richard Rockwell wants to do something other Maine developers couldn’t hope to: offer new apartments in Rockland for less than $1,000 a month with utilities included.
It would be well-received by Rockland residents. Of the 10 rentals currently listed in the city on Zillow, none are priced below $1,250 a month. Developers who want to build anything cheaper than that effectively can’t do it without high-cost subsidies even when land is gifted to them because of high interest rates and construction costs.
But Rockwell, the principal of Rockland Realty, has a plan to make it happen. He and project manager Meagan Adams are applying for city permission to convert a defunct 99-bed assisted living facility downtown that Rockwell already owns into a mixed-use building with roughly 30 apartments as well as commercial, office and retail space.
“It’s a new concept, and the objective is to enable somebody to live in a really high quality environment at well below market prices,” Rockwell said.
Rockwell is confident that the pricing will work out for a couple of reasons. Many of the apartments are going to be efficiencies that share common spaces, including kitchens. He’ll also generate income from leasing out retail, office and commercial spaces, Rockwell said in a Tuesday Planning Board meeting.
The biggest saving stems from the fact that the developers are not building new. Retrofitting the building will cost an estimated $2 million to $3 million, Adams said. Given high interest rates and costs compounded by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, a new construction project like this would cost millions more and couldn’t include affordable units without assistance, according to Rockwell.
“There’s a really hardy infrastructure in the building, not to mention, of course, ADA elevators and all the things that you just simply couldn’t replace today,” he said, nodding to the struggle in Maine to get elevators installed. “To rebuild that building for this purpose from scratch, there’s no chance without subsidization, particularly with tariffs.”
Rockwell plans to make the project work by supplying his own workers. Developers often have to hire outside contractors to build their projects, a process that can often hold up construction for months due to acute shortages in that industry. But as the owner of a local construction company, Rockwell is stocked with licensed tradespeople ready to jump on his project.
That touches on a broader point of Rockwell’s: that this project is easier to build because he’s a local. He knows Rockland, its people, this industry and this property inside and out. He’s also motivated to find a creative solution to his area’s affordable housing shortage, he said, because he confronts it every day in his personal and professional life.
“I have a different level of confidence about some of the unknowns that maybe a third party from outside wouldn’t,” he said.
Members of Rockland’s planning board were generally enthusiastic about Rockwell’s proposal and scheduled a public hearing on the contract zone for April. It fulfills a local need and the proposal matches the city’s comprehensive plan, chairperson Clare Stanton said.
The board’s only reservation about awarding the contract zone rubs up on a broader drawback to building without subsidy: They are going off of Rockwell’s word alone that the rents will be below market-rate. Outgoing city planner Rhett Lamb suggested adding language to the proposal that would codify that promise. Rockwell indicated pause, but he was open to such an arrangement.
“Quite frankly, I don’t want to be codified, but it’s my intention … to be able to create a facility that is going to be able to support additional workforce in this town,” he said.