Housing trust buys UVM apts in Essex

Champlain Housing Trust has bought 11 residential buildings at Fort Ethan Allen in Essex for $3.9 million from University of Vermont as part of a plan to boost affordable housing in the region, the Burlington-based nonprofit announced Thursday.

Nineteen of the buildings' 31 apartments eventually will be converted to affordable home ownership; the remaining 12 will remain as rental units, wrote CHT spokesman Chris Donnelly in a news release.

Existing tenants on the property — many of them graduate and medical students — will be given the opportunity to renew leases in June, Donnelly said.

Community Housing Capital, a national institution specializing in affordable housing, is financing the sale, as is UVM, he added.