The Sandpiper Residences, an apartment complex at 99 Admiral Fitch Ave. that was completed this year, incorporates eco-friendly design and adds 63 units to Brunswick’s housing stock. Kristian Moravec / The Times Record

The Sandpiper Residences, which was previously hailed by officials as the most eco-friendly apartment complex in Brunswick, is complete after years of planning and construction.

The $18 million project, described as an “eco-house” and spearheaded by property developer Dave Holman and Jason Lord, came to fruition this summer and was celebrated last Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new building. The new complex adds 63 units — 13 of which are priced affordably — to Brunswick’s limited housing stock.

“We built our eco-house and we’re really excited about it,” Holman said. “It was a lot with trees last June, and it was open on July 27 of this year.”

The complex, which is situated at the corner of Admiral Fitch Avenue and Anchor Drive, has been in the making for a long time, Holman said. At a recent annual board meeting for the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority — a quasi-state entity that oversees redevelopment of the former Naval Air Station now known as Brunswick Landing — the developer said that the pandemic sidelined the project’s start in 2020 as exponentially increasing labor and material costs forced it back to the drawing board.

Despite the setbacks, the eco-building was finished this summer and earned MRRA’s “Project of the Year” award, which former MRRA Executive Director Kristine Logan said was a recognition of the project’s innovative design, sustainability and positive community impact. At the ceremony, Holman expressed hope that the apartments will become a model for what people can do in the region.

Bringing the project to life was no small feat. Holman said that various teams — including architects who worked mainly from Zoom all the way from Minnesota — worked constantly to get the structure completed. Even the company sub-contracted for framing, J & Sons Construction, had crews commuting as far as New Jersey, he said.

“They were insane; they worked weekends all winter long,” Holman said of the framing crew. “They got this building built in record time.”

Two children cut the ribbon on Oct. 18 in celebration of the now-completed eco-apartment complex in Brunswick Landing. Kristian Moravec / The Times Record

The initial idea for the building also stems back decades to Holman and Lord’s undergraduate years at Carleton College in Minnesota, Holman said.

At the ribbon-cutting, Holman said that they enrolled (and were hired on as teaching assistants) in a course on building eco-homes — known formally as “Designing and Constructing Eco-Houses” — which explores indigenous housing designs, geographic and climate values of housing design, ecological footprints, and more.

Holman decided to bring an eco-friendly design — similar to what Lord has built in Minnesota — to his home state amid rising climate change worries.

“I’m deeply concerned about climate change,” Holman said. ” … The built environment accounts for over 40% of global emissions.”

With homes like The Sandpiper, Holman hopes to “move the needle” in development and how it impacts the environment.

Many of the design aspects of the present building carry the environmentally conscious themes of the early 2000s course in the ’20s. The building, which is equipped with a pump to electrify heating and cooling, has solar panels on the way to augment the system. Windows are large and insulated for maintaining temperatures and bringing natural light inside, electric vehicle charging is available in the garage, and the shingles are light in color, which Holman said absorbs less heat and lasts longer than traditional black shingles.

The new building design also lessened the impact development would have on tree removal. The underground parking garage saved about a quarter-acre of trees while some wood that was chopped down ended up as aesthetic accents in and around the building, such as the front sign, slabs of wood in the remote working rooms inside and a soon-to-come mantel for the fireplace.

Wood in the front sign for The Sandpiper Residences was sourced from trees that were previously located on the property. Developer Dave Holman said that the project saved a quarter-acre of trees by building an underground parking garage in the building. Kristian Moravec / The Times Record

Environmentalism aside, the building completion also comes at a time when Maine towns like Brunswick are looking to boost their stock amid a widespread housing shortage.

Holman previously described the building as “apartments for working people” and not condos for the “rich and famous.” While not a designated luxury building, residents still get clean, modern apartments on the more affordable side with amenities that are sometimes hard to come by in New England, such as an in-unit washer and dryer, and Energy Star appliances that meet efficiency specifications set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Holman and Lord said that 56 units are now rented, with only seven more available. Many of the income-restricted units, such as the studio apartments, are already marked as sold out. Available nonrestricted units in the building cost between $1,895 and $3,250 for apartments ranging from a one- to two-bedroom, according to The Sandpiper website.

The 13 affordable units account for 20% of the apartments available, surpassing the town’s requirements to have 15% priced affordably for buildings of 15 units or more. Asylum-seeking and local workforce families have already started renting in the building, Holman said.

Learn more about the complex at sandpiperme.com.