<p>The Martha’s Vineyard Commission bought an Oak Bluffs property last week that will be the new home for its executive director Adam Turner.</p>
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission bought an Oak Bluffs property last week that will be the new home for its executive director Adam Turner.
The commission paid $710,000 for the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Tia Anna Lane off County Road, a residential area of modest homes near the Lagoon. The seller is Christopher N. Hoxsie.
The purchase marks a first for the regional planning commission, which formed a committee last year to explore the possible purchase of some kind of staff housing amid the ongoing housing struggles on the Island, where real estate prices are out of reach for people with moderate incomes and year-round rentals are scarce at any price.
Commission chairman James Vercruysse, who spearheaded the formation of the committee, told the Gazette by phone that housing the executive director was a good first step.
“We thought about the idea because we’ve lost staff several times in the past,” Mr. Vercruysse said. “Adam was in that position where he couldn’t afford a house here. We decided he was our highest priority on the staff.”
He said the property was chosen because it is near the MVC offices and large enough to allow for a guest house to be built in the future as possible housing for other employees.
At a meeting last Thursday, commissioner E. Douglas Sederholm described the lease agreement, which among other things requires Mr. Turner to pay 30 per cent of his income for rent. Mr. Turner’s salary is just over $107,000. The commission will subsidize the rent at $325 a month.
Mr. Vercruysse said the commission paid for the property using equity from the Olde Stone Building on New York avenue that houses commission offices and adjacent parking lot. He said the two properties are assessed at $1.4 million, of which the commission was able to use $750,000.
“The budget numbers worked out better than we had hoped,” Mr. Vercruysse said.
Speaking to the Gazette by phone on Monday, Mr. Turner said his family has begun the process of moving in and looks forward to the stability after living in seasonal housing since he moved to the Island in 2015.
“I’m happy and definitely respectful of the commission for taking it on,” he said. “I think it will make me more productive.”
Mr. Vercruysse said the commission is applying for grants to improve the Tia Anna Lane property.
“We hope to provide more housing if we can afford it for more staff,” he said. “This is a good start.”
Comments
It's a good story to hear
Adam Wilson AquinnahIt's a good story to hear that the Turner family will no longer have to deal with the Vineyard Shuffle. It also speaks volumes about how unaffordable the Vineyard has become. Drawing executive talent from off island will make municipalitities, banks, the hospital and high end non profit institutions have to consider this type of strategy in providing year round housing, since offering a six figure salary in today's housing market is not going to be financially feasible for a person and his family to be able to afford a 3 bdr, 2 bth single family dwelling on this island...
Hopefully its a fixed rate
Ken Edg.Hopefully its a fixed rate mortgage. We are in a real estate bubble right now and to pay these prices with a variable rate you would have to have rocks in your head.
This is an incredible story
Dean Rosenthal EdgartownThis is an incredible story in that it is hard to imagine it occurring elsewhere, but for Martha’s Vineyard and perhaps Nantucket. Elsewhere, in cities across the country, low cost housing is available, in suburbs and elsewhere — you drive in if you can’t afford the exact location. I see this almost as a kind of collective failure where property values have risen so high, driven up by the demand of off-island wealth, that our community can no longer function normally. When we must purchase a home for an essential employee of a public commission because they cannot get into the housing market, we have entered a surreal era. Will this be the first of many situations we see? For library directors and school principals? Others? While it is essentially too late to turn back, it must be acknowledged that the housing situation has PASSED crisis levels. We are no longer a sustainable community whatsoever, it seems, and perhaps this purchase marks the beginning of the end of a year round community, aside from existing year round residents, eventually ending over decades, further housing being sold when those pass away or can no longer sustain property taxes, etc. If those who do not live here read this comment, we want you to take in for a second what this means on so many levels. It all sounds alarmist. Maybe it is old news.
I could not agree with you
Wash Ashore MVI could not agree with you more.
Thank you Mr. Rosenthal
George Stein EdgartownThank you Mr. Rosenthal
You need to get off the
Steve FalmouthYou need to get off the island more. This exact scenario plays out in many, many, many communities across this country, all the time.
So the poor guy gets the
Steve FalmouthSo the poor guy gets the privilege of paying $33,000+ per year to lease a "modest" house near the lagoon? He won't own anything... What's left after taxes for the guy? Unreal to think that this is some sort of incredible perk.
Add new comment