Three new housing developments in the area — MacKenzie Outlook, the Peaks at Lake Placid and Fawn Valley — are all currently under construction, but MacKenzie Outlook is the only development that will have units for rent at an “affordable” price, between $528 to $1,045 per month.

MacKenzie Outlook was originally expected to house athletes during the FISU World University Winter Games in January 2023 before being turned over to long-term renters. However, Adirondack North Country Sports Council Executive Director Ashley Walden said Jan. 7 that MacKenzie Outlook is now expected to house workers for the games, not athletes.

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Affordability

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A housing needs assessment study released in 2020 showed that with a target of 50% of the local workforce living within the community, North Elba and Lake Placid have a need for roughly 1,534 “workforce and affordable level” housing units. Most of that assessed need, 1,013 units, is for people who make less than $35,150 per year. In the study, affordable rent for that income range is defined as less than $879 per month for an apartment and under $123,000 for a house.

Some units at MacKenzie Outlook will be priced for that demographic.

Of the 60 units at MacKenzie Outlook, 40 will be one-bedroom apartments and 20 will be two-bedroom apartments. The one-bedroom apartments will rent from $528 to $900 a month, plus an $87 utility allowance, and the two-bedroom apartments will rent from $633 to $1,045, plus a $108 utility allowance.

MacKenzie Outlook Developer Larry Regan, president of Regan Development Corporation, said that creating affordable workforce housing to boost the local economies is his company’s vision. Regan Development Corporation has built affordable housing developments in Glens Falls, Plattsburgh and Buffalo, plus more than 20 other affordable developments.

MacKenzie Outlook apartments will never be used as short-term vacation rentals, according to Regan. He said the units will always be for rent, and tenants will be expected to sign a one-year lease at minimum.

The apartments at MacKenzie Outlook will include a dishwasher, stove, microwave and refrigerator, according to Regan. He said the units won’t have a washer and dryer, but the building will have a common laundry room that tenants can use with a credit card system. Hot water will be provided, but Regan said tenants are responsible for all other utilities. Each renter will have to set up and pay for their own Wi-Fi.

Regan said he hopes to pre-lease the apartments to long-term tenants ahead of the games so the units will be ready for move-in at the beginning of February 2023, about a week after the games end on Jan. 22.

Regan said that after the games, Regan development would “tidy” up Mackenzie Outlook to prepare the apartments for incoming tenants.

“So it’s all sort of a nice orchestrated dance,” he said.

Regan said that lease marketing for the building would ideally start sometime at the end of this summer or early fall. Right now, he said, the hope is to finish construction on the building either in late August or early September.

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Under construction

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Regan said that despite recent supply chain shortages and a hike in prices on construction materials, the development is running on budget and ahead of schedule. He said the corporation anticipated the supply chain issues by pre-buying materials.

The project got $3.9 million in state aid last year under the Housing and Homelessness Plan passed by the state Legislature in 2017, and Lake Placid’s Lussi family, which owns the nearby Crowne Plaza Resort, donated the land where MacKenzie Outlook is being built. Regan estimated that the project will end up costing around $18 million.

At the end of this past December, Regan said that construction workers were getting rough plumbing and electrical installed on the site and that the roof was going up. He said the building’s framing and sheathing were done, and that the windows would be going in “shortly.” In a nutshell, he said, workers got the building closed in and protected from winter weather so they could continue working throughout the winter months.

This winter, Regan said they’d install temporary heat so they could work on sheetrocking, taping and painting the interior.

Regan said there hasn’t been “one little hiccup” with the project so far.