Units such as this one have been opened to potential buyers.
Reminder Publishing photo by G. Michael Dobbs
SPRINGFIELD — What was once a location for a clothing factory in the city’s South End is now a 40-unit condo complex designed to help bring additional home ownership to the neighborhood and opportunities to potential home buyers.
Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Ed Augustus said the complex was a production of “intentionality” at the ribbon-cutting for the Gemini Townhouses complex on Sept. 18. The complex is located along lower Central Street and Morris Street.
Augustus explained that city officials and the legislative delegation were “very intentionally in bringing this site back.”
He noted the Springfield delegation acted as a team to secure state funding and noted the spin-off effects of the new housing include an additional base of customers for the businesses in the South End.
The $23 million workforce housing development project that was funded by MassHousing, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Mass Saves, Mass Clean Energy Center, and the city of Springfield.
Several of the speakers, including state Sen. Adam Gomez and state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, noted the complex would not have happened without a program of Mass Housing called The CommonWealth Builder Program, started during the Baker administration that “is intended to spur the construction of single-family homes and condominiums that are affordable to households with moderate incomes, particularly in communities of color,” according to the MassHousing website.
Gomez also joined in other thanking Home City Development, the developers of the complex and Brian Henry, the president of Henry General Contractors, Inc., which built the new condos.
According to the condo complex’s website, geminispringfield.com, “Price per unit will range from $170,000 to $206,000 for a two-bedroom and $189,000 to $227,000 for a three-bedroom depending on your household size and family’s total household income.”
Potential buyers must meet income requirements.
Each unit comes with an attached garage and has been constructed to meet energy-saving standards. Granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances are among the featured finishes.
The complex will also include a pavilion for owners to use.
There is an application for potential buyers at — first-time home buyers — can be downloaded from the website, who must have a pre-approved letter for a mortgage and all other documentation. Potential buyers will be picked through a lottery system.
The location was the site of the Gemini Corporation, which employed local residents in making clothing. After the factory closed, the building lay dormant and was eventually destroyed by fire in 2003.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno released the following written statement about the development, “In 2021, CDO Tim Sheehan and I put the Gemini site out for an RFP [Request for Proposals] for potential developers to come back to us with an innovative economic and housing development plan that would provide much-needed housing unit while also being conducive to our South End neighborhood. I am pleased to announce that Home City Development has once again put forth a very positive, feasible and sustainable development plan. I also want to thank the Healey-Driscoll administration, especially Crystal Kournegay, executive director for MassHousing, for their continued belief and investment in this important anchor project in our neighborhood. Once completed, this project will provide 40 units of affordable homeownership housing in our South End. Through homeownership, families can begin to build generational wealth for their families and have a place they can proudly call home.”
