Developing and preserving housing that makes a difference

Heritage Housing Inc. was formed with a simple mission: To build and preserve great buildings that make a difference in the lives of our residents. We tackle developments with complex financings and difficult circumstances. Like any builder, we face constant pressure to trim costs and stick within a budget. But through it all, we focus on the little details and the thoughtful features that make the difference between a house and a home. Ultimately, we want every housing unit we touch to feel like a home that someone went the extra mile to care about.

We build new housing to create opportunities for families of all incomes to live comfortably in safe, high-quality apartments.  We acquire and rehabilitate existing affordable housing to extend affordability and modernize the apartments.  We complete rehabilitations of certified historic properties. The common thread between these different sectors is our effort to make a difference in the lives of our residents.   

Building On Experience and Successful Track-Record

Heritage Housing, Inc. is currently engaged in the construction or preservation of over 500 units of housing in Connecticut and Vermont.  We own approximately 1,300 units of housing in Connecticut, Vermont, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Our experience ranges from a 17 unit / $7.5 million project up to a 206 unit / $35 million project. The company’s founder, David McCarthy, has worked on over 3,000 units of housing over 20 years, which has included projects as large as $100 million in total development cost. We like complicated, difficult projects and pride ourselves on challenges that nobody else wants to or can complete.

We have a track-record of accepting and completing challenging projects. In our Projects tab, review a few examples, such as:

• Reid & Hughes: A vacant department store in Norwich, CT that we bought from bankruptcy and saved from the wrecking ball. The building had previously been saved from demolition through a last-minute injunction by the state attorney general’s office, and it had partially collapsed before we acquired it. We completed a certified historic rehabilitation and reopened the building in 2025.

• Hartford Preservation: A portfolio financing of the acquisition and renovation of five distinct properties in Hartford, CT, including one, Barbour Gardens, that HUD had relocated tenants from due to squalid conditions prior to our acquisition of it. Barbour Gardens was one of several featured in national news coverage of dilapidated conditions in affordable housing. We completed a substantial renovation to all five properties and reopened Barbour Gardens in 2023.

• Riverwood New Canaan: We assisted a public housing authority in New Canaan, CT in acquiring a 104-unit luxury housing complex with an innovative sale of a tranche of senior tax-exempt bonds with a Fannie Mae credit enhancement and tranche of subordinate bonds. This financing enabled the housing authority to designate 22 of the apartments as affordable with only a tax abatement agreement and the financing to subsidize the reduction in rents.

Learn More

Thank you for visiting Heritage Housing Inc.  Inside you will find information about our current Projects, our Story, and most importantly our People.  

We are often asked "What does Heritage Housing stand for?"  Building is among the most ancient professions.  Anyone who works as a developer, builder, or architect joins a lineage of developers, builders, and architects reaching back thousands of years.  We even still know the name - Imhotep - of the architect of the oldest existing pyramid of Egypt.  He lived over 4,000 years ago!  We believe that acknowledging this heritage of designs, methods, successes, and failures is an essential part of the profession.  We also acknowledge the heritage of reformers, legislators and developers who created the over 5 million assisted housing units that exist in the United States today and contribute to the lives of millions of Americans.