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By Craig Sexton 26 May, 2021
Q&A With Open Cape's First Residential Pilot Customer at 255 Main
By Craig Sexton 04 May, 2021
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES  Denise Coffey Cape Cod Times | USA TODAY NETWORK HYANNIS – Laura Isbrandt and Jim Berube initially intended to buy a home on the Cape when they decided to relocate from the South Shore. h Berube, who owns D&M Inflatables in Rockland, wants to expand his business over the bridge. The couple searched for a house for three months before giving up. h Then one day they came across what they were looking for ... at the Cape Cod Times building. h “We were walking down Main Street and came in here,” Isbrandt said of the new Residences at 319 Main & Ocean. “We tossed everything in the air and said, ‘We’re not going to any more open houses.’” Huge custom murals line a wide hallway in the 319 Main St. building that used to be filled by the Cape Cod Times headquarters. The hallway pictures, taken by the newspaper’s photographers over the years, captured moments of Cape life from the 1940s to the present. Now they mark a new era in the history of the news building. The two-story, 32,000-square-feet building, situated on 2.7 acres of land, has been made home to 22 new rental units. The Times and the Barnstable Patriot remain embedded in a 10,000 square-foot corner on the main floor, where reporters will return once construction is complete. The rest of the building has been transformed into apartments ranging from 730- to 1,471-square-feet in size and renting for $1,800 to $2,700 a month. The project is spearheaded by Main Street LLC and Aaron Bornstein. “We wanted to upscale Hyannis,” Bornstein said. “This building gave us the opportunity.” The units are outfitted with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and marble window jams. Industrial lighting, single-handled faucets and islands that serve to separate kitchens from dining rooms are common throughout. Wooden floors, 23-foot-tall ceilings, steel beams and exposed brick give the units a modern, industrial feel. Energy efficiency was built in from the start with Hydro air heating systems, tankless Navien water heaters, and Marvin casement and double-hung windows. Bornstein said he’s never seen so many people looking for rentals. It’s a mixture of old and young renters, and the 22 units were leased quickly upon being advertised. The effort to breathe new life into the 1938 building came with plenty of twists and turns, delays and unexpected costs. Steel rail tracks, embedded in three layers of concrete and steel, used to carry reams of newsprint through the building when the Times had its own presses. Getting those out required a bomb bar and a team Bornstein likened to a mining crew. “We threw out the budget,” Bornstein said. That’s what often happens with restorations of old properties, Robert Brennan Jr. said. Brennan is the president of CapeBuilt Development LLC, the company that rehabilitated another property near the Times building, called 255 Main. The upgrades there required his company to install a steel skeleton on the inside of the building to support its weight. Three sides of the building had a foundation, but on the other, three layers of brick sat on a dirt foundation. “You have to correct all that,” Brennan said. The rehabilitated structure contains commercial space on the first floor and 10 apartments on the second. Two twobedroom and eight one-bedroom units on the top two floors are mostly renting at market rate, with two units set aside as affordable. The affordable units, which are available for people making 100% of the area median income, rent for $2,173 a month, which includes all utilities and internet access. As at the Residences at 319 Main & Ocean, the 10 units at 255 Main have been rented quickly. Brennan said there are 63 people on a waitlist for the 10 apartments. Sea Captains Row, another CapeBuilt project on Pleasant Street, is another east-end effort. Starting at rentals of $1,675 a month, the one-, two-, and three-bedroom units are designed to draw people downtown, close to the waterfront, restaurants and shops. The developments are transforming Main Street and marking the beginning of a new era, according to Elizabeth Wurfbain, executive director of the Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District. “I think Hyannis is on the cusp of making a great change,” she said. Wurfbain is a believer and proponent of smart growth that creates denser developments that tie into existing infrastructure, such as water and sewer lines. The best practices of planners call for denser footprints in order to reduce pollution, but also to support retail, she said. The ability to walk to work, school, shops and restaurants means fewer vehicles but more vibrancy downtown. The concept behind walkable cities is to get back to the days when people were close to schools and infrastructure, Wurfbain said. “We really have to train ourselves to think urban environment,” she said. The Business Improvement District, which stretches for about a mile from Yarmouth Road to Dumont Avenue and includes several side streets, is one of only seven such districts in the state. Its 100 members contribute to an annual fund of $140,000 that’s used for measures that ensure safety, cleanliness and the beautification of the downtown area. The district has been instrumental in securing state and local grants to improve the downtown area. COVID-19 spurred the town, state, chamber of commerce and the Business Improvement District to make moves they wouldn’t normally have made to foster economic development, Wurfbain said. “The grants were faster and more creative,” she said. The Business Improvement District received a Shared Streets and Spaces grant from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and two Commonwealth Places COVID-19 Response Resurgent Places grants from MassDevelopment, and a Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism grant that they’ve used to turn Main Street into a yearround destination in spite of COVID-19. Old benches were replaced. Bike racks and planters were added to make the street more welcoming. Concrete barriers will be put up again to allow for outdoor dining along Main Street, although this year they will be covered in coastal motifs. Outdoor events with fire pits and warming stations drew people downtown during the winter months. DJs played music, bubble machines sent bubbles skyward, and fun zones were fashioned out of empty parking lots. On a recent cold weekend in April, more than 30 families showed up for a superhero event, something Wurfbain called “huge” for the district. “COVID forced people to do things they wouldn’t normally do,” she said. “We’re teaching people how to be outside.” “There is a huge revival going on,” Brennan said. He credited Wurfbain and the Business Improvement District for efforts to direct grant money into Main Street and keep some businesses afloat. While not all businesses are coming back after the pandemic, Brennan thinks the urban neighborhood has been energized in recent years. That urban experience is something that Brennan said young professionals have been craving on the Cape. In some ways, he said, the pandemic has opened the door for that to happen. “You can keep your job as an accountant, a financial services person, a filmmaker, fill-in-the-blank, and work anywhere you want,” Brennan said. “They can make their ‘anywhere’ Cape Cod.” Anytime a new project is completed or businesses make improvements to their buildings, it adds energy and vibrancy to downtown Hyannis, Brennan said. “It makes it more desirable and more people want to live there.” There’s work still to be done, and the number of empty storefronts along Main Street can be disconcerting. There are currently 13 properties available for sale or lease, including spaces that formerly housed the Hyannis Oyster Bar, Lorena Cafe and Bakery, and the Seaside Pub on Main. The Little Sandwich Shop is open for business but is nestled between two big empty storefronts. Still, Wurfbain is positive that the improvements will help the village of Hyannis, the town of Barnstable and all of its residents. Sturgis Charter Public School bought the old bowling alley at 441 Main St. last year in order to expand its presence downtown. The move will bring some added vibrancy to downtown, Wurbain said, but it’s only part of the overall plan to build a year-round economy, one that supports everyone. Without it, Wurfbain said Hyannis and the rest of the Cape will be in trouble. “You need a year-round economy, not just one that relies on tourism,” she said. “You need affordable housing. All of these pieces must be intelligently woven together.” Hyannis can be a model for changing what downtown areas look and feel like, she said. There are issues that come with urban living, but there is always something going on. “The urban piece is where things happen,” she said. Contact Denise Coffey at dcoffey@capecodonline. com. Follow her on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT. This first-floor apartment at The Residences at 319 Main & Ocean has a view out onto Main Street. The building, which houses brand new units, is almost at capacity. MERRILY CASSIDY/CAPE COD TIMES “You can keep your job as an accountant, a financial services person, a filmmaker, fill-in-the-blank, and work anywhere you want. They can make their ‘anywhere’ Cape Cod.” Robert Brennan Jr. President of CapeBuilt Development LLC
12 Jan, 2021
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Proposed Cape Cod housing plan would help residents, employers, vacationers 
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President of CapeBuilt Development Robert Brennan discusses resilient coastal building techniques on Fox 25 Boston.
21 Nov, 2017
The Barnstable Town Council gave the green light Thursday night to a 60-unit housing development to be built along Pleasant and South streets in a neighborhood known as “Sea Captains Row.”
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Heritage Sands Named “Community of the Year” by National Association of Home Builders
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CapeBuilt Development, LLC Wins Two 2016 PRISM Awards for Heritage Sands - 11 October 2016
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Heritage Sands Wins 2016 BRICC Gold Award: Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Cape Cod recognizes cottage’s unique use of small space - 10 October 2016
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