Dick Anagnost
President of The Anagnost Companies
A prolific developer, Dick Anagnost has helped transform Manchester’s downtown and millyard, renovating 13 downtown buildings during the major recession of the 1990s. After seeing the lack of affordable housing, Anagnost joined the board of Families in Transition (FIT) in 2007, advising and supporting the organization as it developed more than 10 properties into affordable housing during his tenure.
Anagnost is currently building 90 affordable units in Laconia, and 50 affordable units in Merrimack. He is applying for variances for a 72-unit housing project in Windham. “We have about 2,000 units we own and control. They are roughly a 50-50 split between market rate, and workforce and affordable [housing],” Anagnost says.
“I have been fighting the housing crisis in New Hampshire since 1988. If the private sector doesn’t stand up and come to the table on this issue, we’ll never be able to solve it. There has to be a unified effort to reexamine density and reexamine zoning. There should be a more uniform approach statewide to zoning,” he says. “I want to provide as much housing as we can to provide the workforce to continue New Hampshire’s business growth.”
As an employer with 20 companies and more than 1,000 workers, it is a problem he knows well. His latest venture is expanding his charitable gaming businesses in Berlin and North Conway. He is hoping to complete those expansions by summer. Anagnost says these expansions will result in more money raised for NH nonprofits.
Current Issue - May 2024