‘The Grove’ Will Add 11 Apartments, Four Townhouses to Village

By DEBRA MOFFITT
COOPERSTOWN

Cooperstown, a village celebrated for its historic charm, doesn’t see a lot of newly constructed homes. But “The Grove,” a $5+ million project underway at the corner of Glen Avenue and Grove Street, will soon add 11 one-bedroom and studio apartments along with four townhomes.

The apartment units in the Railroad Avenue business district are expected to be completed by July or August and available to rent as of September 1, said Josh Edmonds, a partner in ZAED Properties, which is developing the housing project. Simple Integrity, Edmonds’ construction company, is building the apartment complex and townhomes.

The four townhomes will be sold, not rented, to attract older buyers ready to give up their large houses but who still want to own property and hold on to their equity. The 11 long-term rental apartments are designed to attract younger people looking for something small, updated and walking distance to village amenities.

“There’s a phenomenal, phenomenal demand for this,” said Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh.

People in search of housing regularly comment on the Celebrate Cooperstown Facebook page, with many saying they will be working at Bassett Medical Center. There’s a lack of housing, especially rental units for people who work in town, Tillapaugh said. And not everyone wants to buy an older village home that isn’t move-in ready, she added.

The Grove housing project received $1.3 million from New York State through the NY Forward grant program, created to improve downtowns in small and rural communities. Without the state grant, The Grove might never have been built, Edmonds said.

Both he and his partner in ZAED Properties, opera/theater director Francesca Zambello, have roots in the community and are motivated to invest in small, bespoke projects like The Grove, which are unlikely to attract outside developers because they’re not profitable enough, Edmonds said. ZAED Properties also owns Chestnut Crossing, a 13-unit apartment building in the village completed in 2023.

Cooperstown applied for and received state certification as a Pro-Housing Community—a prerequisite for the NY Forward funds, Tillapaugh said. Housing emerged as the top priority in Cooperstown’s NY Forward plan and the first strategy listed is to “develop diverse and affordable housing options.”

While The Grove achieves the goal of additional housing, it was not proposed as “affordable housing,” which typically has pricing tiers aligned to the local median income. ZAED Properties has not yet set apartment rents or sale prices for the townhomes, Edmonds said. They’ll be market rate but with an asterisk.

The state funding will enable ZAED to set the prices at slightly below market rate, Edmonds said. They hope to roll prices back to market rate six years ago, he explained. When Chestnut Crossing opened, a two-bedroom unit was renting for $2,500.00-$2,600.00, including utilities, Edmonds said.

The Grove’s four townhomes, constructed in two duplex buildings, will offer one-floor living and attached garages. They should be complete by year’s end, Edmonds said. All the dwellings will be certified Passive House buildings, which use less energy, according to the International Passive House Association.

Edmonds acknowledges the cost may disappoint those in search of affordable housing, a term that’s subject to interpretation. Setting rents and home prices comes down to math, he said, and will be based on construction costs, which include moving a historic property that will be incorporated into the design.

A portion of an existing home at 36 Grove Street dates back to 1873 and will be deconstructed and rebuilt on a new foundation—a compromise aimed at acknowledging the history of the “Phinney house” while enabling a workable construction plan. The tension between historic preservation and modern-day housing needs was evident at an April 2025 meeting of the village Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board.

The board was forced to vote on what is technically demolition of the Grove Street property, though a portion will be rebuilt 10 feet away. Two board members lamented that the board was acting in opposition to their charge to preserve historic properties.

Edmonds said he and the team tried 10 or 12 different iterations of the building plan to keep more of the house and none were viable. As it stands, the plan calls for a painstaking disassembly and labeling of each piece of the structure so it can be put back together the same way, he said.

“We’re not proposing to drive a bulldozer through this building,” Edmonds told the board.

HPARB member Erin Richardson said unfortunately the village sometimes must make tough calls like this one.

“I think this is part of our remit to balance development with historic preservation and ensure that Cooperstown remains a livable place that respects its historic character but also acknowledges that things change, people change, the way we live changes,” she said.