Leadership Perspective: Nick Dellacava, PE, Principal - Allen & Major Associates, Inc.
As we move through the first half of 2026, the multifamily development landscape across New England has been reshaped, not by a single seismic event, but by a convergence of policy uncertainty, regulatory friction, and shifting developer priorities that are fundamentally redrawing where and how housing gets built in our region.
At Allen & Major Associates, Inc. (A&M), our teams are working daily at the intersection of these forces, with projects spanning Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and what we are seeing firsthand reflects a market in genuine transition.
Massachusetts: A Market In Limbo
The most significant story in Massachusetts continues to be the rent control initiative that has cast a long shadow over multifamily investment in the Commonwealth. It matches what we are seeing in the pipeline. As the uncertainty continues, many of our core clients are looking at alternate sites, both north and south.
New Hampshire: Opportunity With Friction
New Hampshire is actively positioning itself as a destination for the multifamily capital leaving Massachusetts, and the state has taken meaningful legislative steps to open the door. Governor Ayotte signed a wave of pro-housing bills in 2025, including a landmark mandate requiring municipalities to permit multifamily residential development by right on commercially zoned land. That law is set to take effect July 1, 2026.
But the path from policy to permit is rarely straight. A backlash from municipalities has been swift and organized. What this means practically is that the path to a shovel in the ground in New Hampshire requires a level of local knowledge and regulatory navigation that many developers, especially those new to the state, are looking for.
A&M has been operating in New Hampshire for decades, with our Manchester office embedded in the region's development activity. We know these communities based on experience, and while that knowledge doesn't make us dealmakers, it does make us an essential early step in the process. When clients ask us about a site in New Hampshire, we can tell them quickly whether the fundamentals are there to support what they want to build, water and sewer availability being among the most determinative factors in a state where rural land may look attractive on paper but carries real infrastructure risk. Helping clients avoid costly surprises before they're committed to a site is exactly the kind of value A&M brings to the table.
Rhode Island: Reform-Minded, But Implementation Is Messy
Rhode Island has emerged as perhaps the most reform-aggressive state in our region when it comes to housing policy. The state's legislative momentum is real, yet local implementation remains a friction point. Rhode Island does represent a genuine opportunity. The reform
framework is more durable than in many comparable states, the market is undersupplied, and the regulatory direction of travel is clearly pro-growth. But extracting value from those conditions requires understanding where each municipality actually stands, what their local ordinances look like post-reform, whether infrastructure can support new density, and how to engage planning boards that may be skeptical of the state's mandates.
Our Lakeville, MA office gives us proximity to the Rhode Island market, and our team has the environmental, civil, and land use expertise to work through the site-specific complexities that define RI development.
Our Perspective: Regional Knowledge Is a Competitive Advantage
What ties these three markets together is a common theme: the gap between state-level policy intention and local-level implementation. Developers chasing opportunity across state lines need more than a map. They need a team that understands the regulatory terrain in each jurisdiction, has relationships with the officials who make decisions, and can identify risk before it becomes cost.
That is what A&M has built over more than five decades of practice across New England. We are a multi-disciplinary firm; civil engineering, environmental consulting, land survey, and landscape architecture, and we approach every project as a whole-site challenge, not a series of disconnected technical tasks. When a developer asks us whether a site in southern New Hampshire pencils out, we are thinking about infrastructure capacity, wetland constraints, stormwater, local board dynamics, and the permitting timeline simultaneously. That integrated perspective is what our clients need in a market this complex.
The development landscape in New England is shifting. The opportunities are real, and so are the potential risks. Our job and our value are making sure our clients see both clearly, no matter which side of a state line their next project sits on.
