Against the backdrop of New Hampshire’s life sciences boom and its added pressure to the state’s already strained housing market, New England Real Estate Journal (NEREJ) gathered thought leaders to discuss housing solutions for this rapidly growing workforce at the 2025 Life Science & Housing NH Summit in Nashua. VHB’s New Hampshire Managing Director Dave Fenstermacher, PE, shared insights on a Housing panel alongside panelists from two companies with whom VHB has strong relationships—developer Procopio and construction management firm Fulcrum.
VHB has been expanding living options for life sciences professionals in the Manchester area where thousands of new jobs in that sector are expected. Partnering with Procopio, VHB is supporting the development of approximately 250 cottage-style rental homes in Londonderry. Phase 1 of the Merrimack Park Place project—Merrimack’s first walkable mixed-use community—built 224 much-needed apartments; Phase 2 will build 178 more. And VHB is easing the housing burden for New Hampshire’s Upper Valley’s growing biotech hub with more than 700 units in two developments near Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
“While my panel focused on the housing challenges facing New Hampshire’s life sciences community, VHB has been working hard with all of our business partners at the NEREJ summit—developers, architects, engineers, energy professionals, construction contractors—to get people throughout New England into homes they can afford," says Dave. "This was a prime opportunity to share industry trends and continue our running conversations so we’re all moving things forward together.”
Leveraging cutting-edge technology, relationships with state agencies, and impactful community outreach with a holistic integrated services approach, VHB is helping development teams creatively tackle the New England housing crisis with forward-thinking, innovative housing solutions.
- With 90,000 units needed by 2040, speed-to-market is imperative for addressing New Hampshire’s acute housing shortage and VHB’s integrated services teams are helping municipalities, developers, and higher education institutions get new market rate developments like Merrimack Park Place and the Summit at Juniper designed, permitted, and built.
- With transformative affordable housing redevelopment projects like the 2,699-unit Bunker Hill Housing Redevelopment, VHB is helping drive redevelopment of millions of square feet of old parking lots, outdated housing developments, and unused buildings into thousands of units for cost-burdened residents.
- In Connecticut, where the affordable housing deficit is an estimated 89,000 units, VHB is positioned to help developers overcome market challenges and strategically shape the future of the state’s evolving real estate landscape.
- In Worcester, MA, VHB has been collaborating with developers on first-of-their-kind affordable and market rate housing projects to alleviate the city’s housing shortage.
- To answer Maine’s Acadia National Park’s dire need for employee housing, VHB led the civil engineering for the sustainable Harden Farm development.
- VHB is leading land development initiatives like the cleanup of a formerly contaminated industrial site in the City of St. Albans, VT, to leverage brownfields to meet Vermont’s housing crisis.
Learn more about VHB's Real Estate services and how VHB’s New England Land Planning Team is thoughtfully and innovatively meeting the region’s diverse housing needs by emailing Dave and connecting with him on LinkedIn.
