We are thrilled to share the news of an exciting project underway, co-lead by MWA Founder Nancy Kleppel! For nearly 5 years Nancy has been working on her first real estate development project as a co-founder of the ownership group, Live|Give|Play. The project, a 70-unit mass timber, Passive House rental apartment building in Northampton, MA, is through design development and entering the construction documents phase, planning for a spring 2023 groundbreaking.
Live|Give|Play was founded to transform how older Americans live with new buildings in walkable connected communities.
The challenge:
· 40 million baby boomers will turn 65 between now and 2030
· 30 million of them cannot afford to age in place due to insufficient post-retirement financial resources
The L|G|P solution:
· Apartments in walkable neighborhoods of small cities
· More vibrant lifestyles, lower costs, and greater sense of purpose than car-centric suburbs
The Live|Give|Play mission as carried out in the Northampton, MA development project concept has been lauded as a sustainable solution to a housing crisis for baby boomers by a number of publications, including Treehugger in this recent article, titled This Mass Timber Passivhaus Rental Building Is Perfect for Active Adults.
With her strong professional background as a trained architect, with deep experience in business development, marketing and operations consulting, Nancy serves as serves as LGP’s architectural and design interface. In this role she recommended the architect for the project, BKSK Architects*, and has advised on team members and project participants throughout. As a project owner and sponsor Nancy participates in all design meetings and provides diverse advisory, moving the project forward on all fronts alongside partners David Fox and Patrick McDarrah.
At present L|G|P is pursuing equity investors and construction funding, learning about the twists and turns of the global economy along the way.
As Nancy says, “A career can take you to unexpected places where the thread connecting everywhere you’ve been to where you are currently going becomes apparent. Along the way you tie up all loose ends, bringing the pieces together, culminating in your life’s work. The feeling of pride and accomplishment and deep respect for all the people who played roles along the way is satisfying, humbling and awesome!”
*BKSK Partner, Julie Nelson will lead an MWA seminar alongside Nina Kinoti-Metz in January.