Preserve North, WinnResidential
Major Rehab Community Community of the Year Finalist

Preserve North is a 284-unit apartment community in Peabody, Massachusetts. Of the 284 units, 20 are studio apartments, 234 are one-bedroom apartments, and 30 are two-bedroom apartments. Preserve North has a six-story mid-rise (Building I), a seven-story high-rise (Building V), a four-story mid-rise (Building N), and an administration building with amenities (Building M). Buildings I and V have elevated walkways to Building M's common areas. The property has five elevators and 251 surface parking spots.
Building M, a brick Federal-style building, has a 900-square-foot lounge, a laundry facility, a playroom for kids, work-from-home spaces, a leasing and management office, and a full fitness center on the first and third floors. To create a central hub for tenants, Building M's first floor received a new accessible ramp, elevator, and two wheelchair-accessible bathrooms on each floor. The walkways from Buildings V and I to Building M were widened to help disabled residents access these amenities. The original stone A.C. Leather Company sign is preserved in front of the building.
Building I is made of brick and has a flat membrane roof. It has six stories and a 14,700-square-foot trapezoidal footprint. On the northeast side of the building is a tower with an elevator and stairs. A steel-framed bridge connects Building I with Building M on the fourth level. Of Building I's 103 apartments, there are 18 loft-style duplexes on the first floor and are 85 single-level homes in floors 2-6. The lofts are on the mezzanine floor, between the first and second floors. Each loft has a private terrace. Behind Building I was a 225-foot, early 20th-century smokestack. It was unrepairable, and engineers feared concrete fragments would hurt someone. The workers sealed and repainted 15 feet of the structure and created a landscaped path with memorial markers about the A.C. Lawrence Leather Company.
Building V has a 21,000-square-foot trapezoidal shape. The membrane-roofed seven-story brick building has a slab-on-grade foundation. The south façade has ornate steel frames and a fourth-floor elevated walkway to Building M. The southeast corner has an elevator and stair tower.. Building V contains 154 apartments. There are 68 one-story flats, 50 platforms with lofted bedrooms, and 36 loft-style duplexes. There are 68 apartments on one level, 50 platforms with lofted bedrooms, and 36 duplexes in the loft style.
Building N, built in the 1970s, is the most recent. It is concrete, with a flat membrane roof. The trapezoidal, four-story building contains 27 apartments, served by two elevators.
It is on 5.25 professionally landscaped acres and has a fenced-in dog park and two courtyards overlooking Crowninshield Pond and Proctor Brook. Three MBTA bus lines—one to downtown Boston, one to the Northshore Mall, and one to a commuter rail station—are walkable.

The buildings which today house Preserve North, were built between 1894 and 1915 by the A.C. Lawrence Leather Company to manufacture leather goods. During the period from 1915 to 1972, they employed thousands of workers, cementing Peabody's place in history as the largest calfskin and sheepskin manufacturing city in the world and earning it the nickname "Leather Capital of the World." Between 1975 and 1978, the buildings were rehabilitated and converted for residential use, using MassHousing’s 13A Interest Subsidy program.
The property, then called "The Tannery,” had 49 unrestricted market units and 235 affordable units. The deed-restricted affordability for these units expired in 2018. The previous owner chose to sell it on the open market and received a $37.5 million bid from a buyer who intended to convert the property to 100% market rate housing. At the time, the community had 449 residents in 271 homes; 233 households had an income between 30% and 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI). In addition, The Tannery represented 14% of Peabody's subsidized housing stock; its preservation was critical.
Pursuant to Chapter 40T of Massachusetts General Law, the Commonwealth reserved the right to designate an affordable housing developer to purchase the property and maintain it as affordable housing, provided that the selected developer matched the market rate offer. WinnResidential purchased the property with financing from DHCD and MassHousing to extend affordability for through 2062.
Prior to Winn's acquisition, the last renovations at the property were completed in 1994. There was significant deferred maintenance which the previous owner had not attended to, including: cracks in the exterior masonry; sagging roof decks; and plumbing, heating, fire protection and ventilation systems that were non-operational or nearing the end of their useful life. Upgrading these systems resulted in an 11.5% reduction in measured energy costs between 2018 and 2020.
Prior to renovation, the community had only 14 ADA-compliant units, below the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (MAAB) threshold of 5% of units accessible to persons with mobility impairments and 2% of units accessible to persons with sensory impairments. Winn created 15 mobility units (5% of total) and 7 sensory units (2% of total).
The accessibility expansion facilitated the Massachusetts DHCD awarding five Section 811 Project Rental Assistance (PRA) vouchers for people with disabilities, allowing ownership to capture 110% of fair market rent (FMR) for these units. All persons referred to 811 units receive comprehensive supportive services from MassHealth, the DDS, the DMH, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and/or the CSPECH. These services are supported by Winn’s Connected Communities platform for resident services.
235 of the 284 units at Preserve North are LIHTC units. 35 units are restricted to households earning less than 30% AMI; 165 are for households at or below 60% AMI, and 35 are restricted to “income averaging” rents below 80% AMI. Additionally, 84 apartments are subject to a Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (MRVP) contract with the Peabody Housing Authority. 49 units are rented at market rates. There are no longer age-restrictions for new residents at Preserve North.

Preserve North is unique in the marketplace both in product and price, as a true mixed-income community offering modern apartments with unique floorplans and features. Among its competitors, it offers the most central location to downtown Peabody, freeways, and public transportation, for easy access to Boston. Further, no other product in the marketplace can offer as rich a historical and cultural significance as a preserved mill building.
Apartment homes were newly updated with fresh white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, two-tone paint and plank flooring. Many different floor plans are offered, including loft-style duplexes with vaulted ceilings, exposed brick and beams, and private balconies or patios.
New amenities were added during the renovation, including well-lit landscaped outdoor areas, overlooking Crowninshield Pond, featuring benches, picnic areas and grills; a public park surrounding the remains of a historic smokestack, with memorial plaques; and a fenced-in dog park with obstacle course and dog wash stations. Indoor amenities include a resident lounge with seating areas, catering kitchen and media wall; a fitness center with state-of-the-art strength and cardio equipment; an expanded laundry facility; upgraded leasing and management offices; work-from home lounge spaces; a kid's play area; and new lobbies for each residential building, with video based intercom system at entry doors and buzzers in each unit.
Resident Services have expanded through WinnResidential's Connected Communities platform, which partners with organizations such as Food Link to supply fresh food to approximately 50 households per week through a weekly on-site food pantry that has operated since 2020 and the Torigian Family YMCA, to provide approximately 1,800 meals per month to 60 school-aged youth.
The management office is open Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The management team consists of a property manager, two assistant property managers, a resident services coordinator, a superintendent and two maintenance technicians are supported by a regional director of facilities, a regional marketing manager, a regional compliance coordinator, a regional resident services coordinator and a regional property manager.
"Residents have expressed their appreciation for making the building more attractive to themselves, visitors and members of the surrounding community. They are proud to call Preserve North home," said Sarah Chambers, regional property manager. “They are very excited about the gym, laundry facilities, dog park, new lobbies and unit upgrades.”
Chambers says that new leases generated through word-of-mouth are a great measure of success. The community has maintained an average occupancy of 97% since September 2021 and has seen 8.5% in-place rent growth per square foot since February 2021.
Reputation management is very important and will be a focus of 2022 for the management team. we are launching a “Share the Love” online review contest. Team members will distribute cards, to encourage participation, in each household's mailbox and leave them in units along with work order summaries after maintenance work is performed. We will also begin providing in-person training to new and existing team members on how to use the ReviewPush platform effectively and share best practices for responding to positive and negative reviews.Preserve North is unique in the marketplace both in product and price, as a true mixed-income community offering modern apartments with unique floorplans and features. Among its competitors, it offers the most central location to downtown Peabody, freeways, and public transportation, for easy access to Boston. Further, no other product in the marketplace can offer as rich a historical and cultural significance as a preserved mill building.
Apartment homes were newly updated with fresh white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, two-tone paint and plank flooring. Many different floor plans are offered, including loft-style duplexes with vaulted ceilings, exposed brick and beams, and private balconies or patios.
New amenities were added during the renovation, including well-lit landscaped outdoor areas, overlooking Crowninshield Pond, featuring benches, picnic areas and grills; a public park surrounding the remains of a historic smokestack, with memorial plaques; and a fenced-in dog park with obstacle course and dog wash stations. Indoor amenities include a resident lounge with seating areas, catering kitchen and media wall; a fitness center with state-of-the-art strength and cardio equipment; an expanded laundry facility; upgraded leasing and management offices; work-from home lounge spaces; a kid's play area; and new lobbies for each residential building, with video based intercom system at entry doors and buzzers in each unit.
Resident Services have expanded through WinnResidential's Connected Communities platform, which partners with organizations such as Food Link to supply fresh food to approximately 50 households per week through a weekly on-site food pantry that has operated since 2020 and the Torigian Family YMCA, to provide approximately 1,800 meals per month to 60 school-aged youth.
The management office is open Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The management team consists of a property manager, two assistant property managers, a resident services coordinator, a superintendent and two maintenance technicians are supported by a regional director of facilities, a regional marketing manager, a regional compliance coordinator, a regional resident services coordinator and a regional property manager.
"Residents have expressed their appreciation for making the building more attractive to themselves, visitors and members of the surrounding community. They are proud to call Preserve North home," said Sarah Chambers, regional property manager. “They are very excited about the gym, laundry facilities, dog park, new lobbies and unit upgrades.”
Chambers says that new leases generated through word-of-mouth are a great measure of success. The community has maintained an average occupancy of 97% since September 2021 and has seen 8.5% in-place rent growth per square foot since February 2021.
Reputation management is very important and will be a focus of 2022 for the management team. we are launching a “Share the Love” online review contest. Team members will distribute cards, to encourage participation, in each household's mailbox and leave them in units along with work order summaries after maintenance work is performed. We will also begin providing in-person training to new and existing team members on how to use the ReviewPush platform effectively and share best practices for responding to positive and negative reviews.