Tuscan Village already accounts for more than 7% of Salem’s total tax revenue, and the developers aren’t finished building. A newly proposed West Village District would add a 392-unit apartment building, a 120-room hotel, and a separate 72-unit workforce and affordable housing building, according to the Eagle-Tribune. None of it is approved yet. It’s still working through Salem’s Planning Board.
The plan keeps shifting toward more housing, not less. The workforce housing component grew from an original 50 units to 72. Add in the rest of the residential pieces in the district and some reports put the total new housing at around 464 units, on top of a shopping center that’s already one of the largest tax contributors in town.
What that means locally: Salem’s tax base leans harder on one property every time this project expands, and the town gets several hundred more rental units within walking distance of retail and a highway exit. That’s meaningful new supply in a county where supply has been the whole problem. It also means Tuscan Village keeps drifting further from “outlet mall with a movie theater” and closer to its own small downtown, with everything that brings: more traffic study, more abutter pushback, more Planning Board nights that run long.
If you own near Tuscan Village, or you’re weighing whether to buy near it, this is worth tracking regardless of how you feel about growth. A development doing this much heavy lifting for a town budget changes what your tax bill looks like over time, and a few hundred new rental units changes what your street feels like day to day. Neither of those shows up in a listing description.
Curious what growth like this does to your own property value nearby? Not a Zestimate, an actual number based on your street, your condition, and what’s closing around you. Call or email me and I’ll put one together.
