The owner of a local clean energy company wants to build an 8-unit apartment complex on Swan Lake Avenue in Belfast to help meet the need for “missing middle” housing.
Josh Oxley, owner of Logix, a Belfast-based company that installs solar power systems, heat pumps and provides other electrical services, is proposing to build two single-story structures — a 6-plex and a duplex — at 58 Swan Lake Ave.
The apartments would have two bedrooms and be rented on a year-round basis. They will be built to high energy-efficiency standards and Oxley intends for them to be fully electric and use heat pumps and solar power.
“We’re hoping to attract people that want to be part of a community,” Oxley said.
While the upfront costs of this kind of construction are higher, it “pays back in spades” over time, Oxley said.
The building site is almost two acres and was formerly home to a single-family home that was demolished last summer.
Oxley hopes the first tenants will move in by late 2026 or early 2027.
The city has approved the preliminary plan for the project but it will still need to go through a final review before it moves forward, said Bub Fournier, the director of Belfast’s Code and Planning department.
In 2024, Logix moved into a new headquarters on Route 1 in Belfast, a 14,000-square-foot solar-powered building.
“We invested in East Belfast with our new building and our business, and this is just an extension of that,” Oxley said. “We believe in this area.”