“My goal is to make a community a better place through thoughtful real estate development,” David Holman said about his first multi-family, ground-up construction project. With financial support from Mascoma Bank, The Sandpiper Residences, brings 63 new apartments into a walkable neighborhood in Brunswick, Maine.
And when Dave talks about making a community better, he’s thinking beyond the immediate neighborhood—he means community in the global sense. By addressing and changing the environmentally damaging practices that are routinely part of the building industry, he can make a significant difference to the climate crisis while creating homes people want to live in.
“These aren’t 63 separate apartments that people come and go from without knowing their neighbors. We want it to feel more welcoming—imagine something more like a college dorm as far as social interactions and opportunities are concerned.”
In addition to the ability to walk to restaurants, shopping, and businesses, The Sandpiper features a rooftop sky deck and lounge, fitness center, yoga studio, shared chef’s kitchen, and fireside library with bookable “zoom rooms” for meetings or work.
“To me, banking is about trust. As a developer, your financial fate is in your bank’s hands, so you need people you can count on.”
Addressing climate impact has long been a motivator for Dave, who noted, “40 percent of global emissions come from the building industry—it’s the biggest source of our problems. My goal is to make a positive impact on climate change by adopting better environmental techniques and evangelizing to other developers in the real estate space.” The Sandpiper provides a benchmark for similar structures with solar panels, EV car and bike chargers, a state-of-the-art VRF heating and cooling system, high-efficiency appliances, and LED lighting.
When Dave and his longtime friend and business partner, Jason Lord, began to explore funding for the Sandpiper project, they were looking for a bank that could offer the best rates, plus a little something more. “To me, banking is about trust. As a developer, your financial fate is in your bank’s hands, so you need people you can count on.” As a mutually owned community bank with a 126-year history, Mascoma Bank has proven over and over to be a reliable partner and earned the kind of trust Dave talks about.
For their part, the Mascoma Bank Maine team was thrilled to work with Dave. “Much about this project spoke to our values,” said Andrew Cook, Mascoma Bank Senior Vice President & Maine Market Leader. “Not just the sustainability aspect, but the fact that we are creating more housing, which helps both residents and employers in the greater Cumberland county area.”
The Sandpiper might be Dave’s first foray into new apartment construction, but the seed for this project was planted decades ago, at Carleton College in Minnesota where he and Jason took a class called ‘Building the Eco House.’ His first projects were single family homes, often historic buildings with a history of neglect and deferred maintenance. “It was really a win-win. The tenants loved these projects because they were getting their space fixed up and the neighbors appreciated the fact it no longer looked like a haunted house. There’s a lot you can do with historic buildings.”
When it was time to try a more complex construction, they focused on finding a community that offered recreational and practical services just a short drive away. This section of Brunswick was perfect—grocery stores, museums, restaurants, schools, a brewery, a bookstore, and hiking and biking trails nearby meant less need for dependence on transportation. This is also a critical piece to the 13 affordable units, most of which have been rented to local workforce families and asylum seekers who might experience transportation as a barrier to improving their livelihoods.
“Being part of new construction that works as part of the community is important to us at Mascoma Bank,” said Andrew. “We were thrilled to be involved with this, the first multi-family housing deal in Brunswick that secured tax increment financing. This means that part of the taxes paid on the property gets allocated back into the project to make it possible to price units affordably.”
Those 13 affordable units make up 20 percent of available apartments at The Sandpiper, which surpasses Brunswick’s requirement to have at least 15 percent in a building of 15 or more units priced affordably.
“Mission and complexity—this project had all of it,” Andrew went on to explain. “At Mascoma, we have a wealth of commercial lending knowledge, added to the knowledge we’ve built through Mascoma Community Development and that gives us an edge when it comes to finding solutions that work for both a developer and the community.”
Dave said. “I’ve had construction loans where the bank gets anxious if one bucket of the budget goes over and another goes under and then moving money between those buckets requires many levels of approval, but Mascoma Bank was very flexible. They understood there’s a thousand different things in construction that need to be fungible. And that makes a huge difference—it allowed us to finish a little ahead of time and under budget.”
Dave also appreciated Mascoma’s dedication to the more esoteric aspects of commercial lending. “They’ve made a corporate commitment to high ethics. They’ve proven they’re going to be in top tier of environmental consciousness and social responsibility—and that’s the kind of world we all want to live in.”
Click to find out more about The Sandpiper Residences
“Being part of new construction that works as part of the community is important to us at Mascoma Bank.”
