FREEPORT — Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland will move forward on a project to build four new Freeport duplexes after the town council approved a land sale to the nonprofit Tuesday night.

Habitat’s offer for the land came in around $125,000 less than its assessed value, but town officials said that repeated efforts to sell property off West Street to private developers have failed since 2008.

“We tried on multiple occasions to find any interest in this property and we found none from developers or others,” at- large councilor Richard DeGrandpre said.

The town will now receive $40,000 for that land; however, the agreement also allows Habitat to defer payment on the West Street property and another development on South Street until each of the units are completed.

The town will receive $144,000 total from Habitat for both developments, which will be paid as the West Street duplexes are completed — payments of $36,000 for each duplex as they are completed.

DeGrandpre said that previous plans to build 24 units on the property fell through because of problems with access to the property, which is bordered by a deep gully and a railroad line with storm drain easements that also run across the property.

A letter from Steve Bolton, executive director of Habitat for Humanity’s Greater Portland branch, said the sale will eventually generate an estimated $2.3 million in tax revenue across 11 housing units at South and West streets, based on what he called “a conservative appraised value of just $210,000 for each unit.”

The agreement also states that the town will apply for a federal Community Development Block Grant in 2012 to fund infrastructure improvements at the site that are projected to begin, at the latest, by December 2012.

Affordable Housing

With a worsening economy, Bolton said that Habitat has had to adapt its work to an economy that, in recent years, offers few opportunities for land grants to build affordable housing.

“When land was given to us by towns — when the economy was different,” Bolton said, “ we could work with very low-income populations, and that was our model not just in Maine but all over the world.”

Now, Bolton said, housing projects where the nonprofit has to buy land are more common, but require up- front fundraising and housing projects that are more expensive than in the past.

Around six years ago, while constructing a subdivision outside of Portland, Bolton said, a number of applications came in from families making $60,000 to $70,000 a year.

“I didn’t understand quite how difficult it was,” Bolton said.

In speaking with officials from Maine State Housing, Bolton said, he learned that families making up to $78,000 were then considered lowincome when it comes to housing.

District 1 councilor Sara Gideon said Tuesday that rising home prices in town have been, in recent years, pushing some residents who work in town further into the less expensive outskirts.

“People in the Fire Department have moved farther and farther out of town and this is exactly the type of housing that meets the needs of our community,” Gideon said.

The council approved of the land sale Tuesday in a unanimous vote.

dfishell@timesrecord.com / @darrenfishell