MIDDLEBURY — A Pennsylvania attorney and developer is proposing a 32-unit, four-story apartment building — that would also host a restaurant — on a 0.71-acre lot near the intersection of Middle Road and Route 7, at Middlebury’s southern gateway.

The proposed “Middle Road Housing” project is the brainchild of Phil Rosenzweig, under the corporate name of Middlebury Investors LLC. A real estate attorney by trade, Rosenzweig has also launched several housing projects of his own — including the Valley Forge Terrace luxury apartments in Pennsylvania.

The Middlebury Development Review Board on Monday got its first look at conceptual plans for “Middle Road Housing.” At this early stage, plans call for 32 apartments, including one one-bedroom unit; five two-bedroom units; and 26 four-bedroom units. Ten of those four-bedroom units would be contained on a single story; the remaining 16 would be so-called “up-down” units spanning the third and fourth floors of the apartment building. The building would be 46 feet, 10 inches tall from ground to parapet, according to plans prepared by Vermont Integrated Architecture.

Rosenzweig has yet to assign rents to the apartments but offered some general insights.

He won’t be tapping any state or federal affordable housing programs to help subsidize the project. But Rosenzweig noted Middle Road Housing is to be built in one of Middlebury’s few Neighborhood Development Areas (NDA), a designation that allows developers tax and permitting incentives — including the ability to circumvent Act 250 review — in exchange for building housing in a spot favored by the community. Rozenzweig said his project’s Act 250 exemption comes with a responsibility to make 20% of Middle Road housing’s units “affordable,” based on Addison County’s median income.

Included within that 20%, according to Rosenzweig, will be the one one-bedroom apartment, the five two-bedroom units, and one of the four-bedroom units.

“We are honoring that and have built that in programmatically,” he said. “But that doesn’t entail any affordable housing money from the public; it’s just my obligation to check the box regarding an Act 250 exemption.”

Addison Housing Works (AHW) is the county’s largest affordable housing nonprofit, and Elise Shanbacker is its executive director. The AHW isn’t a partner in the Middle Road Housing project. But she said that based on the county’s latest median-income profile, a single person would need to pay around $1,600 per month for a one-bedroom unit, and a household would need to pay around $2,100 per month for a two-bedroom unit.

As for the four-bedroom units, Rosenzweig envisions them as being particularly suited to multi-generational family households, groups of cohabitating young professionals and perhaps multiple Middlebury College students who have permission to live off-campus. In essence, households of related or unrelated tenants able to pool their resources to make the monthly rent a lighter lift for all.

“More and more younger people, in their 20s and 30s, are living for long periods of time with a roommate or roommates,” he said, casting his plan as a throwback to “the early immigration days to this country,” when housing was reimagined for multiple related or unrelated people.

“My thought is I would try to create bigger units with more bedrooms for multiple roommates,” he said, adding Middle Road Housing’s four-bedroom apartments would be 1,200 square feet or larger.

He acknowledged one of the four-bedroom units would be an “expensive rent” for a family of two parents with three children.

“They would be better served buying a house,” he said.

Rosenzweig said he did his homework on Middlebury prior to assembling his application. He had originally sought to build something with smaller units. But that was before construction prices spiked — again.

“I read, word for word, the town’s master plan. I understood that housing is valued, a need, and welcomed conceptually,” he said. “But the more I worked through my own project, the more I realized I couldn’t make a conventional, one- and two-bedroom market-rate project work. I couldn’t charge enough rent to make it… a viable financial exercise.”

It’s no coincidence that “middle” is a key descriptor for the project, according to Rosenzweig.

“I refer to the project as ‘the middle.’ It’s in Middlebury, on Middle Road, but also is targeted to the ‘missing middle,’” he said.

The “missing middle” term has come to symbolize the dearth of middle-income housing — folks earning too much to qualify for subsidized housing, but not enough for a conventional home-start.

Folks living at Middle Road Housing would have convenient access to Middlebury schools, The Centre (Hannaford’s) shopping plaza, Route 7, and state offices located in South Village Green, according to Rosenzweig.

The parcel, currently owned by local businessman Tony Neri, is a close neighbor to Good Point Recycling at 55 Middle Rd., and the One Dollar Market at 198 Court St. The land is in the town’s Mixed-Use District, deemed appropriate for housing, among other things.

Rosenzweig is still finalizing an agreement with a restaurateur to operate the Middle Road Housing eatery. The party — which he will identify after a deal is reached — is an experienced entrepreneur with eight restaurants in his portfolio. He said the Middlebury restaurant would likely offer Mediterranean fare, “with a touch of Italian,” with dine-in and takeout options.

“We believe it will supply a missing piece of the culinary puzzle in Middlebury,” Rosenzweig said.

If all goes smoothly with permitting and financing, Rosenzweig would like to break ground on Middle Road Housing this fall. It would become the second major housing start-up in Middlebury, along with Stonecrop Meadows off Seminary Street Extension, in the past several years.

Middlebury Town Planner Jen Murray gave a positive review of Middle Road Housing’s preliminary application.

“This developer has been great to work with. I like that he has a background in planning and has been an ally in trying to situate (the project) on the parcel in a way that’s recognized as good urban design and form,” she said.

Murray cited the placement of the apartment building close to the road, with the requisite 45 parking spots located in back, as an example of good urban planning.

“I think it’s a building design that would stand up well through the years,” she said. “It’s good infill development.”

John Flowers is at [email protected].