Costs increase on Cooks Corner workforce housing project

The Middlesex County Board of Supervisors learned in November that the cost of building a 24-unit workforce housing complex at Cooks Corner is continuing to increase in cost as the county waits for funding to appear.

Bay Aging’s Assistant Director of Multi-family Housing Development Allan Walker reported at the supervisors November regular monthly meeting that as of August 2024 the new bid amount to build the project is $5.9 million. This amount has increased since the last bid presented in 2022, which was $5.6 million.

The workforce housing project will provide “reasonably priced” rentable homes for school teachers, sheriff’s office personnel, low income families and other Middlesex County employees moving into the county who are seeking affordable housing.

The workforce housing project was originally part of a 2019 Cooks Corner Revitalization Project. When that project died because of the ramifications of COVID-19 in 2020, the grant funding for workforce housing was dropped by the U.S. Department of Housing and Community Development. The county, however, decided to pursue the project by seeking other funding in November 2021 with Bay Aging taking over the helm.

Bay Aging is managing and owner of Mercer Place in Kilmarnock, a workforce housing facility. Walker said Bay Aging wants the 24-unit facility at Cooks Corner to be of the same high standard as Mercer Place.

Recently, it was reported at an Urbanna Town Council meeting that 45% of the housing in the town was either short-term or long-term rentals. The long-term home and apartment rental monthly rent ranged from $800 to $2,000 a month, it was reported.