AUBURN — Developers of five vacant Main Street townhouses hope some repairs and relaxed income standards will help them sell once and for all.

Debra Gibb, senior asset manager for the Coastal Enterprises’ housing development division, said the units at 261 Main St. should be back on the market in December.

Gibb said four of the units were broken into in August. Thieves made off with four stoves and four refrigerators, damaging walls, doors and windows on the way out.

Gibb said police recovered the stolen appliances. Deputy police Chief Jason Moen said police are pursuing leads on the robbery.

“But we did not want them back,” she said. “They had been brand new when they were stolen and they were not very careful when they were removing them. So they were not in good shape.”

Gibb said contractors are making repairs and the units should be ready for occupants in December — without appliances.

“We are not going to buy new appliances for them until they are sold,” she said.

If they don’t sell, Coastal Enterprises would consider renting them, she said.

“If we can’t sell them, we would be better off renting them,” she said. “They will just be vandalized if we don’t have people in there.”

The units were built in 2012 and have since been vacant, despite efforts to sell them.

“It has been a very difficult housing market,” Gibb said. “It’s just really tough. We have a certain community we need to reach out to. They need to be sold to low-income people and we’ve been having a difficult time qualifying people.”

Crews razed the Auburn Lanes bowling alley in 2011 and Coastal Enterprises subdivided the half-acre parcel into seven lots.

Individual townhouses were built on five lots, all facing Academy Street. A common area, with parking and a carport, was built on the sixth lot behind the townhouses.

The seventh lot, which would face Main Street, is reserved for future development. That could be more residential development or retail.

The project cost an estimated $1.25 million, with an $850,000 federal Neighborhood Stabilization Grant to help make it economically viable.

That federal grant means the units can be sold to medium-income residents, Gibbs said. That means residents making about 120 percent of the median income for Central Maine can qualify. That’s about $68,000 for a family of four.

“There have been barriers to selling them in the past,” Gibb said. “We hope we can overcome them. It’s such a moving target now.”

Gibb said CEI needs permission from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development before it can begin renting the units.

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