In a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 17, College officials unveiled Sugarwood Circle, a 21-unit development for benefits-eligible staff and faculty in West Lebanon.
Sugarwood is part of College President Sian Leah Beilock’s plan to add 1,000 new beds for the Dartmouth community over the next ten years, according to the Dartmouth Campus Services website. The complex is expected to be fully completed this summer, with 12 units currently finished and in-use, according to the website.
The College employed local building companies Estes and Gallup and Huntington Homes to construct the Sugarwood Circle units, according to Dartmouth Campus Services. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Estes and Gallup co-owner Tim Estes said that planning for Sugarwood began in the fall of 2024 and that a modular approach was used for construction, meaning that the parts of the houses were built in a factory and then assembled on-site.
“This has been one of the smoothest projects I’ve been involved with and from a team standpoint,” Estes said.
Because Sugarwood is owned by the College, the units are available for rent only. Rent for a two-story home at Sugarwood is $4,400 per month, according to the Valley News. This amount does not include utilities.
Senior vice president for operations Josh Keniston said the rental price reflects Sugarwood’s “relatively large homes” with modern renovations.
“We think they are in line with what similar types of housing units look like from the rest of the market,” Keniston said.
Keniston said that “many things in recent history” have made housing in the Upper Valley more scarce than in the past. In particular, Keniston said the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects put pressure on the region’s housing market.
“With more people able to work remotely, it really shifted the kind of dynamic of who buys homes and lives in the Upper Valley,” Keniston said. “And I think that was on top of an already tight housing market.”
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies and art history professor Mary Coffey wrote that she was “shocked” by the Sugarwood rental prices.
“I am disappointed to say the least,” Coffey wrote. “From my perspective, little has changed since I arrived in 2004 when it comes to the College’s provision of affordable housing for its faculty.”
Coffey wrote that she did not think the Sugarwood development would help solve the College’s housing crisis.
“Given the local cost of living and the fact that our salaries are not keeping up with the national average, let alone the local average, which is higher, this seems to me like it is just adding to the problem,” Coffey said.
Jeff Shapiro ’83, whose construction company Occom Pond serves as project manager for Sugarwood, said the price was “comparable” to that of other similar units on the market.
“This is the reality of housing pricing today unless it’s deeply subsidized by some governmental type of organization,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro said that he thinks the rental pricing is “fair” considering the level of investment put into the Sugarwood development.
“It might have been possible to build much more stripped down, low-cost housing, but I don’t think that’s in the best long-term interest of anybody,” Shapiro said.
Keniston noted that Sugarwood “doesn’t work for everyone,” but said it was a part of a “broader suite of projects” that will inform College housing moving forward.
“Any new bed is a net positive,” Keniston said. “If we’re able to get a Dartmouth student or Dartmouth faculty or staff member to live in something that we build, that means they’re not somewhere else in the market taking up another spot.”
