If you have spent any time in downtown Hyannis over the past few months you have probably noticed there is construction going on all over the place.
In the downtown core……including Main Street, South Street, North Street, Stevens Street and Barnstable Road…….there are apartments and condos being built at a staggering pace.
All through the miserable winter of 2025-26 construction continued on 95 apartments at 201 Main Street in the East End; 18 apartments at the site of the former 7-11 store on North Street; 45 apartments in four buildings on Barnstable Road; 50 condominiums at the former site of a car dealership at North and Stevens Streets; and a smaller, luxury condo development overlooking Hyannis Harbor on South Street.
And, just getting under way is the construction of 40 apartments in four buildings on the site of a recently demolished church on Stevens Street.
There are also smaller developments and redevelopments going on around the downtown area. All of the building follows by just a few years the opening of the Sea Captains Row apartments on Pleasant Street, the Lewis Bay Court apartment complex opposite Cape Cod Hospital and the massive Hanover Hyannis apartment development outside the downtown area, but still in Hyannis, behind the BJ’s Warehouse store.
The wave of residential construction is allowed under Barnstable zoning and Growth Incentive Zone policy and it also complies with2023 rules adopted to support more housing while standardizing the appearance of new buildings.
All this building is being done to meet the perceived need for more housing. But is has some people concerned.
Barnstable Town Councilor Charlie Bloom, whose district includes part of Hyannis, says he wants to see buildings that are “characteristic of the area,” he was alarmed at the size of the building going up at 201 Main St. in the East End of Hyannis. It’s a large building, built close to the narrow street with parking underneath the building and a large parking lot to one side.
“That’s creating a character of its own. This monstrous thing that’s so close to the road. There’s never been anything like that in Hyannis.”
Bloom and other councilors have begun to take a new look at zoning for Hyannis with an eye toward making adjustments.
Bloom says he doesn’t see any nefarious intent on the part of anyone in government or developers, as some have charged. Still, he wants to see new rules and policies adopted.
Barnstable Town Planner James Kupfer welcomes the new construction as part of an overall revitalization of downtown Hyannis.
“There’s so much more than development on the ground. There’s new programs and activities,” Kupfer said.
He said the Great Streets program, due to go into effect in the fall of this year, will see Main Street and South Street returned to two-way traffic.
“That’s going to bring a lot of life and activity to Main Street itself, giving the pedestrian and the business community the priority over the automobile zipping through our village center.”
Kupfer acknowledged the 201 Main St. development that has Bloom concerned. The large, imposing apartment building is on a lot was for years a deteriorating former motel property.
“We’ve now seen a corner turned and a lot of interest in Hyannis where there wasn’t prior.”
The Hyannis Public Library on Main Street is also undergoing a major renovation that will leave its historic section intact while replacing an already outdated newer wing.
In fact, all of the apartment and condo developments now under construction are redevelopment projects on land that was already built upon.
Alissa Magnotta, Chief Executive Officer of the Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC), a nonprofit organization that helps people of limited means find housing, says the demand for additional housing was one reason HAC is developing 50 condominium units on the former site of a car dealership on Stevens Street.
“We look at what’s missing in the community and what are the needs of Cape Codders,” Magnotta said. She said with funding available from various state programs, and private developers focusing on rental apartments, with rents of more than $2,000 per month, the time was right to develop condos.
“It’s for people at 100 percent average median income. Regular working people who make 80 thousand up to 150 thousand household. Brand-new homeownership condos for people who want to stop paying high rents and have some ownership stake and have some equity.”
Magnotta said redevelopment is important to the village.
“Hyannis is the economic center of the Cape and you are seeing bigger projects and activity that has been needed for decades.”She said Main Street in Hyannis has been a “dying street” for years.
When developer Stuart Bornstein, who has built many projects in the Hyannis area over the last few decades, was asked if all the new housing could negatively impact community character, he had a sucint reply.
“What character?” he said.
Bornstein is developing what he calls “a new luxury neighborhood” of 54 condominiums on just up South Street from Cape Cod Hospital and stretching to Hyannis Harbor. He said the condos will sell for between $600,000 and $3.4 million.
Closely watching all the new development is Elizabeth Wurfbain, executive director of the Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District, an organization, according to its website is, “designed to promote economic development on Main Street, “as a desirable place to live, work, invest, and visit.
Wurfbain said Hyannis is the “Gateway City” of Cape Cod and has the infrastructure to support the new development.
“One of the pillars of a great downtown is to have people thriving in your area that can walk to shops, the gym, to school, to church, be part of the community.”
“If you picture a place that you love somewhere in the world, it’s usually a walkable downtown. A beautiful downtown where you can have an ice cream and there’s a park and all the great things of living in a place.”
