Jackson Lab partnering to build employee housing on expensive tourist mecca Mount Desert Island

From The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com):

“The Jackson Laboratory, the world-famed biomedical research institution, is partnering with Developers Collaborative, based in Portland, Maine, to build employee apartments near the laboratory’s Bar Harbor, Maine, facility, on Mount Desert Island.

“Because of the close proximity to Acadia National Park, tourism in the area has driven real estate prices up, making affordable housing for employees scarce on the island. The first phase of development, called the Schooner Head Housing Project, will consist of five buildings with 44 apartments, and is expected to be complete by the summer of 2021. The finished project will include 100 additional units. Developers Collaborative has overseen other housing projects in the Hancock County area, including a 50-unit complex completed in 2018 and fully occupied by mid-2019.

“I go to every new employee coffee [gathering] in Bar Harbor,” says Catherine Longley, Jackson Lab’s Chief Operation Officer, “And the No. 1 issue the employees say is, ‘I can’t find a place to live.’”