The largest 55+ project Bedford has approved in recent years has had its approval for two years now, and its developer is still asking for more time to meet the conditions. Bowman Gardens is a five-story, 62-unit senior residence planned for Market & Main at 125 South River Road. The Planning Board approved it on October 7, 2024. Since then the developer has come back for more time once, and has asked a second time.
If you're a Bedford homeowner planning to sell the family house and stay in town, that delay matters more than any listing photo. The real question is when a building you'd move into will exist, and Bedford's own zoning rules go a long way toward explaining why that date keeps slipping.
The Approval Date Is Not a Move-In Date
Here is the public record for Bowman Gardens, in order:
- October 7, 2024. The Planning Board approves the site plan for a 62-unit, 55+ multifamily senior residence at Market & Main.
- September 8, 2025. The applicant, Munson and Associates, asks for a one-year extension to meet the approval conditions. The board grants it unanimously.
- October 5, 2026. A second one-year extension request from ER Bedford/Encore Commercial LLC and Munson and Associates was on the Planning Board agenda.
At the 2025 hearing, Eldon Munson told the board the extra time was needed because of "the complexity of planning involving Encore in financing the project and in continued development of the details of the project," according to the September 2025 Planning Board minutes. The vice chair said the board "all wish that it could have been groundbreaking sooner, but here we are today."
Nobody did anything wrong here. Large buildings depend on financing, and financing runs on its own clock. Still, if you were counting on a unit at Market & Main when you started planning a sale in 2024, you're now two years into the wait with no groundbreaking date on the record. The public documents also don't say yet whether Bowman Gardens will be rental or owned units, and that's a big question for anyone hoping to buy rather than rent.
Why the Senior Proposals Keep Landing on South River Road
The location follows from the rules Bedford sets for senior housing. The town defines senior housing as housing intended and operated for occupancy by at least one person aged 55 or older. On top of that definition, the ordinance requires:
- Municipal water and sewer, plus full sprinklers
- A one-acre minimum lot with 100 feet of frontage on a Class II, IV, or V road
- A maximum building height of 48 feet and 30% green space
- No more than 12 dwelling units per acre of net developable area
- At least 10% of units affordable to low-income seniors
Each requirement makes sense by itself. Put together, they point projects to land that already has public water and sewer and is big enough to hold a building whose units can pay for that infrastructure. Every senior-oriented proposal on the October 5, 2026 agenda sits in Bedford's Performance Zone.
The newest one shows how tight the math gets. At that meeting, the board took a first look at a five-story, 16-unit senior apartment building at 33 and 35 South River Road. According to the Union Leader's October 13 report, the project engineer described it as "the site that's next to the T-Bones." The two lots together come to about 0.90 acres, and the ground drops some 11 feet from the road.
That's below the one-acre minimum. At 12 units per acre, 0.90 acres supports about 10 or 11 units even if every square foot counted as developable. The applicants expect to seek waivers for height, density and number of floors, among other items. The owner-applicants are long-term Bedford residents who plan to live in the building themselves. They've proposed underground parking with one space per tenant after a winter of heavy snowstorms, units mostly around 1,300 square feet, and two of the 16 units set aside as low income.
Planning Board Chair Hal Newberry called the design "very innovative" and told the team, "do what you can to avoid as many waivers as possible and, if you can't, make sure you have a good reason why the board should support the waivers," the Union Leader reported.
The same agenda had a third Performance Zone concept. Arbors Funding Corp. proposed a 66-unit assisted living facility at 72 Hawthorne Drive. That's a care setting, which is a different product from an independent apartment or condo for someone downsizing from a four-bedroom Colonial.
So the senior route in Bedford tends to produce multi-story buildings on the commercial corridor, built with the kind of financing that already stretched Bowman Gardens past two years.
The Downsizer Option the Senior Rules Would Not Allow
The project with the clearest ownership path isn't age-restricted at all. On January 5, 2026, the Planning Board unanimously approved Bedford Cottages, a 30-unit cottage court from Trendezza, LLC at 54 Rundlett Hill Road in the General Residential zone.
The units are capped at two bedrooms or fewer and no more than 1,500 square feet. At the hearing, the applicant described them as suiting older couples as well as younger households.
According to the January 5, 2026 Planning Board minutes, Bedford Cottages will take water from Manchester Water Works, and one of its approval conditions is an NHDES septic approval. That septic-plus-public-water setup is something the senior-housing ordinance, with its municipal sewer requirement, wouldn't accept. The approval also requires a condominium plan creating 30 condominium units, one per cottage, to be approved and recorded before building permits are issued. The precedent conditions are due within one year, which puts the deadline around January 2027.
| Project | Address | Units | Type | Status in the public record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowman Gardens | 125 South River Rd, Market & Main | 62 | 55+ multifamily, tenure not stated | Approved Oct 2024; extended Sept 2025; second extension requested Oct 2026 |
| South River Road concept | 33–35 South River Rd | 16 | Senior apartments | Conceptual review Oct 5, 2026; waivers expected |
| Arbors Funding Corp. | 72 Hawthorne Dr | 66 | Assisted living | Conceptual review Oct 5, 2026 |
| Bedford Cottages | 54 Rundlett Hill Rd | 30 | Cottage condominiums, not age-restricted | Approved Jan 5, 2026; conditions due within one year |
Of four projects, only one is an approved ownership product with a defined size limit. It's also the one that sits outside the senior-housing rules.
The House You Would Sell Is Moving the Other Way
While the receiving buildings wait on paper, the market for the house you'd sell has shifted. According to the New Hampshire REALTORS® Bedford report for September 2026, single-family homes in town compared with September 2025 like this:
- Inventory rose to 40 homes, up from 25
- Months of supply went to 2.3, up from 1.3
- Days on market lengthened to 37, up from 21
- Sellers received 96.5% of original list price, down from 100%
- The median sale price was $827,500, up from $725,000
A rising median next to a falling list-to-sale ratio can look contradictory, but it's a small-sample effect: only 18 closings in September. Every other number in that list points the same way. Buyers have more to choose from and more time to choose, and sellers are giving up a few points off their original asking price. A year ago, a Bedford seller could list and expect full price inside three weeks. That no longer describes this fall.
There isn't a Bedford-only condo figure in the NHAR report. Across Hillsborough County in September 2026, condos had a $390,000 median sale price across 116 sales and 28 days on market. That county figure covers a far wider mix of housing than a new Bedford building will offer. What it does show is that the equity gap a downsizer hopes to unlock is real, while the time to sell is getting longer.
In this market, the longer you wait to sell, the less leverage you're likely to have. Meanwhile, the building you'd move into could still be one financing round, or one waiver hearing, from a shovel.
Sequencing a Bedford Downsize Around What Actually Exists
That points toward timing the sale to buildings that exist rather than to approvals. Questions worth answering early:
- Is the project approved, extended, or still conceptual? Planning Board agendas and minutes on bedfordnh.gov show each stage. A conceptual review is a first look and involves no vote on the project.
- Will the units be rented or owned? For Bowman Gardens, the public record doesn't answer that yet.
- Is it age-restricted? Bowman Gardens is 55+. Bedford Cottages isn't, so younger buyers will be competing for the same units.
- Where would you live in between? If your house sells before your next home exists, plan the bridge housing and the moving logistics before you list.
- What does the house next to yours sell for this month? With 2.3 months of supply in September 2026, your recent comparable sales matter more than they did a year ago.
FAQ
Is Bowman Gardens under construction? The public record doesn't show a groundbreaking. The October 5, 2026 agenda listed a request for another one-year extension of its conditional approval.
What does Bedford require for a project to count as senior housing? The ordinance requires at least one occupant aged 55 or older per unit, municipal water and sewer, at least 10% of units affordable to low-income seniors, and density of no more than 12 units per net developable acre. The full text is on ecode360.
Can anyone buy at Bedford Cottages? The project wasn't presented as age-restricted, and it's being set up as 30 condominium units.
This post is general information about public records and market data. It isn't legal, tax or financial advice, so please confirm the specifics of your own situation with the right professional.
If you're weighing a Bedford downsize, the plan has to start with the order of the steps: when to list, where you'll live in between, and which buildings are real. Marianna Vis has spent more than 25 years managing simultaneous buy-sell moves in Southern New Hampshire, and she can map that sequence against your house and your timeline. Vis Realty International can help you schedule a consultation before the next extension request reaches the agenda.
