Four-party deal sets aside Berlin property for preservation and workforce housing

Harrison Kanzler at the Littleton headquarters of Affordable Housing, Education and Development. Earlier this year, the nonprofit received 70 acres of land on Cascade Hill in Berlin from The Conservation Fund which will eventually be developed into the Tinker Brook housing project. (Photo by John Koziol)

A four-party land deal among a community-minded landowner, two conservation groups, and a community-housing development organization will eventually add to the workforce housing stock here.

And while the participants acknowledge the unique way the deal came together and recognize its unicorn-like qualities, they’re also hopeful that the publicity about the deal on Cascade Hill may inspire other landowners to think similarly to support both conservation and the economy.

Most agree New Hampshire‘s economy is being hampered by a crisis-level lack of housing. In 2023, the New Hampshire Statewide Housing Needs Assessment concluded that the Granite State “needs 60,000 more housing units between 2020 and 2030, and nearly 90,000 units between 2020 and 2040.”

While lawmakers in Concord have wrestled with the housing shortage, other entities have done so quietly, and behind the scenes, following their mission statements and waiting for the right situation to come along.

For The Conservation Fund (TCF), the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and Affordable Housing Education & Development (AHEAD), that opportunity manifested itself in June with the TCF acquiring 800 acres of land from an unnamed landowner that are located in the southeastern reaches of Berlin and extend northwest from New Hampshire Route 16 to the hillsides between Sugar Mountain and Jericho Mountain.

TCF subsequently sold 730 of the acres to the Forest Society, which renamed them as the Cascade Hill Forest. The Forest Society said it will manage the land “as a working forest” that will remain open to the public for hunting, fishing, hiking and snowmobiling, according a press release in September.

Meanwhile, on its parcel, AHEAD, according to executive director Harrison Kanzler, will eventually build a mix of single-family and multifamily housing known as “Tinker Brook,” while paying property taxes to the city of Berlin.

That housing, he agreed during an interview at AHEAD’s headquarters in Littleton, might be a metaphorical drop-in-the bucket of the housing that is needed in Berlin and the Androscoggin Valley, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction.

Even if it takes several years to develop that housing, as is likely, one of the most fundamental steps — land acquisition — is complete, Kanzler said.

Sally Manikian, who is TCF’s Gorham-based director for New Hampshire and Vermont, pointed out that TCF, while not in housing per se, has a mission that includes forest protection, restoring fish passageways and developing “conservation projects that preserve economic and environmental benefits into the future.”

It’s often the case, she said, that when TCF is working on an acquisition, the acquisition brings benefits to others, to wit the Cascade Hill property.

The Cascade Hill landowner approached TCF with the intent of “doing good with his land,” she said, noting that he “could have listed this on the open market” but instead chose to “go on a journey with a bunch of mission-oriented nonprofits and I said, ‘We can figure this out.’”

TCF has “a great relationship with the Forest Society statewide, especially in the North Country, and this was a good fit for what they were looking for, and it was also at that point that I was working with AHEAD for land in the Androscoggin Valley.”

In addition to a motivated landowner, the land itself made the Cascade Hill deal possible because it is actually two, noncontiguous parcels: the woodland piece that the Forest Society wanted, plus the smaller lot which has frontage on a public road, is flatter and therefore has more development potential.

To Manikian, who has been with TCF for eight years, the Cascade Hill transaction was the first of its kind for TCF “in New England and for sure in New Hampshire. This was breaking new ground, and it was great to see it.”

She agreed that the transaction could be a “one off” because “a lot of things aligned to make this possible,” but added that the deal was made possible because of the landowner and because TCF, the Forest Society and AHEAD “stayed in our lanes” and were ready to act on it.

Echoing Kanzler, Manikian said there is “no one solution” to meet the need for housing, rather, “It takes all of us trying to solve it.”

While another Cascade Hill might not be replicable, she said what is demonstrably replicable is that “partners are working to maximize opportunities like this.

It’s not a ‘one-off’ for these groups to be working with each other.”

And as important, Manikian summed up, is to have a landowner who has “a mission orientation, and that’s what we had in this situation.”

Savage agreed that “so many things lined up well” for the Cascade Hills acquisition, among them partners who know each other’s missions well.

That said, “We have to give all the credit in the world to the landowner who sold the land who had some specific outcomes in mind. They had a conservation ethic and wanted resources protected, but the land was in such a place that it served some housing needs,” Savage said. “The sale made us aware of it, and we like the idea that it might have some positive outcome other than land conservation.”

Affordable Housing Education & Development plans to build a mix of single-family and multifamily housing known as “Tinker Brook” on property it recently acquired in Berlin. (Photo by Ryan Smith)

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests recently purchased a 730-acre parcel in Berlin, now to be called the Cascade Hill Forest. The nonprofit plans to manage land as a working forest and keep it open to the public for hunting, fishing, hiking and snowmobiling. (Photo by Ryan Smith)

Kanzler credited TCF for bringing the Cascade Hill acquisition together and for inviting in the Forest Society and AHEAD.

He said building new housing in a rural area, like Berlin, is neither easy nor inexpensive, and with Cascade Hill “it’s not something you’re going to get done in a several years.”

With Tinker Brook, “We’re at a point where we’re not sure what we’re going to do with it,” except that it will have singlefamily homes and rental units, the former of which would be done first, he said.

Like TCF, the Cascade Hill acquisition is the first of its kind for AHEAD, said Kanzler, although that model is frequently discussed among housing organizations.

“Finding and building those partnerships helps with smart growth in our communities,” he said. Kanzler anticipates that “maybe 40% of Tinker Brook is developable.”

But since the land is free, “That helps this make sense,” he said.

The Conservation Fund acquired 800 acres of land from an unnamed land owner that are located in the southeastern reaches of Berlin.