This architect’s drawing shows the commercial storefront of Yarmouth Commons, which also will include apartments and a small park for public use. Contributed/ Nate Green

The developers of a project that will bring 18 apartments and three commercial spaces to the corner of Route 1 and Portland Street in Yarmouth next spring are looking for community support for a small park there, too.

Nate Green and Chris Marshall want to add a “pocket-style” park along the Beth Condon Pathway, which runs in front of the 15,000-square-foot site. While their company, 103 Development, has budgeted $100,000 to create the park, they’re hoping donations will allow them to enhance it.  

“We really envisioned this to be a public destination for Yarmouth people to go from Main Street to the corner of Route 1 and sit down, enjoy the park and whatever businesses will be there and just create a great spot for residents to relax,” Green said.

They’d like the park to include table seating so residents can sit and enjoy lunch or coffee and possibly take in public art displays the park would host.

The developers haven’t set a fundraising goal for the park, but plan to launch the campaign in the next few weeks, Marshall said.

“We’ll have a Facebook page set up with information for donations and how donations will be used,” Marshall said. “The details are still getting worked out right now, but people might be able to get their name on a park bench or we might put up plaques for corporate donors if they donate at a certain level. We’ll have all that set up in the near future.”

They will also be collecting residents’ ideas for the park throughout October at the Yarmouth Farmers Market, Green said.

Green and Marshall have been in contact with Yarmouth Parks and Recreation about how to best make use of the space, said Director Karyn MacNeill. The town won’t have any ownership in the park, which MacNeill describes as a “pocket-style park” that will have passive uses as opposed to hosting sports events.

The site for the mixed-use building, named Yarmouth Commons, “looked undevelopable, small and just not very attractive” to other people, Green said.

“But we were interested in looking at a bigger project than either of us had ever done before,” he said.

He and Marshall have developed other, smaller projects that have included converting foreclosed properties into apartments.

Yarmouth Planning Board Director Erin Zwirko said as the project came under review “it became clear that this project would be an excellent example of Yarmouth’s Character Based Development Code by creating the desired mix of residential and commercial uses, with strong bicycle and pedestrian access, while maintaining the compatibility with the established and traditional development patterns of Yarmouth.”

During the planning phase in Yarmouth, traffic concerns had been raised because of the site’s proximity to the intersection. A new left turn lane and signs along the Beth Condon Pathway alerting pedestrians about vehicles entering the 21-space parking lot should mitigate those concerns, the developers said.

The studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments will reflect market prices, Green and Marshall said, but the plan is to keep them affordable.

“They’re not luxury condos. This is something that’s designed to be accessible to anybody working in the community,” Marshall said.

Two of the commercial spaces will be 500 square feet and the third will be 1,000 square feet.

The target completion date for Yarmouth Commons is May 2022. There is no completion date set for the park, but it is likely to be done by fall 2022.