MANSFIELD — A new area developer is making plans to build apartments behind the former YMCA site.
Blue Door Development has agreed to purchase four parcels along Parker Street and Bartley Avenue from the Richland County Land Bank.
Developer William Barber said the goal is to build a total of 12 apartments on the Parker and Bartley lots, formerly the site of the YMCA’s tennis courts and parking lot.
“We’re playing with a couple different designs,” he said. “We can fit five duplexes on Parker Street.”
The final two units will likely be two single family homes built on Bartley Avenue. Barber said the sitework — digging footers, pouring a slab foundation and erecting concrete block walls — could start by late August. Construction will commence in September.
The company had been eyeing the property for years, but wanted to wait until the old YMCA was torn down.
“We liked it because it was right off of Park Avenue,” Barber said.
He added that Blue Door may be interested in purchasing the Park Avenue lot in the future, depending on the results of soil testing.
Blue Door, a collaboration between Alaska’s General Contractor and Chris Dirt Excavating, plans to construct 100 new housing units over the next 10 years on properties acquired through the Land Bank.
A two-unit building was completed in June and both sides have been rented. Blue Door is currently finishing up two more duplexes on Franklin Avenue. Barber expects those projects will be completed in September.
