WinnCompanies has secured financing to acquire and overhaul Chicopee Village Townhomes, a 290-unit affordable housing community in western Massachusetts, ensuring the long-term preservation of income-restricted housing at the site. The transaction renews affordability protections that had been scheduled to expire in 2026 and initiates a $41.5 million rehabilitation program targeting the aging residential buildings.
Chicopee Village Townhomes is located in Chicopee and functions as a suburban, townhouse-style community. Originally constructed in 1947, the property comprises 62 two-story buildings spread across a 17.6-acre neighborhood. The community has operated for decades as family-oriented affordable housing, but the owner and public-sector partners identified significant deferred maintenance that required a comprehensive modernization effort.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) designated the property as a preservation priority in February 2025, underscoring the state’s focus on maintaining existing affordable housing stock in western Massachusetts. In April 2025, EOHLC selected WinnDevelopment as its designee to make an offer for the community and to lead the redevelopment process, formalizing a public-private approach to extending the property’s affordability and addressing its physical needs.
The rehabilitation scope is designed to tackle long-standing capital requirements across the 62-building campus. While specific upgrades were not detailed, the work is framed as a broad effort to remedy deferred maintenance and modernize the property’s housing stock. Construction activity is already underway, and the redevelopment program is projected to be completed by the summer of 2028, allowing the community to remain in service while improvements are phased in.
Project leadership has emphasized the strategic importance of preserving this family-oriented housing. WinnDevelopment President Adam Stein characterized the townhome-style community as both invaluable and rare, noting that public and private stakeholders quickly aligned around the need to sustain and reinvest in the property. That shared alignment has supported the transition from identification as a preservation priority to the launch of full-scale rehabilitation work.
The Chicopee Village initiative illustrates how state housing agencies and private developers can collaborate to retain older affordable housing communities that might otherwise face expiring affordability restrictions. By pairing renewed affordability protections with a substantial capital investment, the project is positioned to extend the useful life of the post-war neighborhood and maintain a supply of income-restricted units in western Massachusetts through at least the completion of construction in 2028.
