Under The Radar: Affordable Senior Housing Communities Need Support To Fight COVID-19

MassHousing has closed on $2.8 million in affordable workforce housing financing to The Community Builders for the ongoing construction of the 12-unit 35 Village Hill Road in Northampton. Valley Community Development Corporation is the project co-sponsor.

The new housing, which is being developed on the site of the former Northampton State Hospital, will feature 10 workforce housing apartments for moderate-income households and two deeply affordable units for clients of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH).

“MassHousing is pleased to support The Community Builders and Valley Community Development in their transformation of a vacant lot into new homes for working households and residents in need,” said MassHousing Executive Director Chrystal Kornegay. “We’re happy that these new homes will serve working and disabled households for many years into the future.”

“The Community Builders is excited to once again be expanding housing opportunities at Village Hill in Northampton. Our organization is committed to building strong communities where all people can thrive. We are grateful to MassHousing and our other state and local partners who help us make this work possible” said TCB Director of Development Rachana Crowley.

“Valley Community Development is proud to be part of increasing the economic diversity of housing options at Village Hill,” said Valley’s Executive Director Joanne Campbell.

The 12 new apartments will be contained in one building, which will also have first-floor commercial space. Ten of the apartments at 35 Village Hill Road will be workforce housing units affordable to moderate-income households. Six of the workforce housing units will be deed-restricted for households earning at or below 120 percent of the Area Media Income (AMI), and four will be workforce units for households earning at or below 80 percent of AMI. Additionally, two units will be deeply affordable for DMH clients and will be supported by federal Section 8 project-based vouchers. The AMI for Northampton is $76,000 for a household of four.

There will be two studio apartments, six one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments. Construction is expected to be completed in September.

MassHousing is providing TCB with $1.4 million in permanent financing, and $1.4 million in workforce housing funding from the Agency’s Workforce Housing Initiative.

In addition to the MassHousing financing, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) is providing the project-based vouchers and $1.5 million in direct support. The project also received $1.3 million in funding through the Community Scale Housing Initiative (CSHI), a joint initiative of DHCD and MassHousing that funds smaller-scale affordable rental developments.

The Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) is providing $360,000 in financing, the City of Northampton contributed $200,000 in local Community Preservation Act funding and Citizens Bank is providing $2.5 million in construction financing.

35 Village Hill Road advances the Baker-Polito Administration’s goal of creating up to 1,000 new workforce housing units affordable to middle-income households through MassHousing’s Workforce Housing Initiative. Since the inception of the initiative in 2016, MassHousing has committed or closed workforce housing financing totaling $98.2 million, to 45 projects, located in 21 cities and towns. To date, the Workforce Housing Initiative has advanced the development of 4,030 housing units across a range of incomes, including 1,096 workforce housing units.

The general contractor is Western Builders. The architect is Davis Square Architects and the management agent is TCB.

MassHousing has financed five rental housing communities in Northampton totaling 642 units of housing with an overall original loan amount of $33.4 million and the Agency has also provided home mortgage loans to 427 homebuyers and homeowners with an original purchase principal balance of $31.2 million.

SourceHealth Affairs

MassHousing Closes on $2.8 Million in Financing for New Workforce Housing in Northampton

“Valley Community Development is proud to be part of increasing the economic diversity of housing options at Village Hill,” said Valley’s Executive Director Joanne Campbell.

There will be two studio apartments, six one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom apartments. Construction is expected to be completed in September.

MassHousing is providing TCB with $1.4 million in permanent financing, and $1.4 million in workforce housing funding from the Agency’s Workforce Housing Initiative.

The general contractor is Western Builders. The architect is Davis Square Architects and the management agent is TCB.

SourceBoston Real Estate Times

A $5 million investment in kids at Greater Lowell YMCA

A $5 million “investment in the future of our kids” should be ready by September as the Greater Lowell YMCA embarked Friday on a renovation and expansion project to its Thorndike Street building.

Executive Director Kevin Morrissey welcomed Lowell officials and others “to celebrate our investment in the facility and our children.”

When completed the project will mean 12,000-square-feet of renovated and added space providing “a state of the art learning center for kids,” Morrisey said.

A $1 million grant from the state Department of Early Education and Care got the project off the ground.

The state agency visited Lowell a year ago to evaluate the YMCA’s facility and programs before making the award.

“It really felt great here,” said Theresa Jordan of the Children’s Investment Fund, which oversees the grant for the state.

State Sen. Edward Kennedy, state Rep. Tom Golden and Mayor John Leahy shared memories of the YMCA growing up in Lowell. Golden and Leahy both learned how to swim at the Y pool. Kennedy also learned to swim at the Y, but the old Y on Merrimack Street, which was located between Old City Hall and what is now Enterprise Bank.

The new YMCA opened 45 years ago, so Kennedy took some ribbing from Golden and Leahy.

Golden called the Y “a real asset for the community” and added that it is a safe place for the children of Lowell. Leahy agreed and remembered coming to the building when it first opened.

City Manager Eileen Donoghue reminded the audience that the YMCA is more than 150 years old. “It’s been a labor of love from then until today,” she said, adding, “The YMCA is more important now than ever.”

While construction is underway, the early childhood programs and day care have been moved temporarily offsite. Windows in that area of the building are boarded up and the interior has been gutted. The gym and other areas at the front of the building are still open, but signs of construction are still evident.

Project Manager Robert Samaral of Kaplan Construction was on hand outside to answer questions. He has done a lot of work for YMCAs in the state, including several in Lawrence. But this is his first project in Lowell.

SourceLowell Sun

Construction begins on 51 affordable apartments in Revere

With market-rate apartments sprouting along Revere’s oceanfront, a new development is ensuring that some of them will be offered at affordable rents.

The Neighborhood Developers, a Chelsea-based nonprofit, recently broke ground on a $22 million project to construct 51 units of affordable housing at 571 Revere St., a block from the beach and near the Wonderland MBTA station.

Opening in spring 2021, the six-story building will feature a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, a shared community room, and underground parking, according to Rafael Mares, executive director of The Neighborhood Developers.

Mares said the project will help meet a growing need for affordably priced housing in the city. He said that includes the Revere Beach area, where 1,168 new market-rate apartments are completed, under construction, or planned in the Waterfront Square development area.

“Particularly in a community where rents are continuing to increase and where many local residents cannot afford to pay market-rate rents, we wanted to provide a place where people in Revere could still live in Revere and to be close to the beach and public transportation,” he said.

Thirty-two of the building’s units will be affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of the $113,300 area median income for a family of four, with 11 of those further restricted to households with incomes below that figure. Nineteen units will be “workforce housing” for households earning up to 90 percent of area median income. Preference for 70 percent of the units will go to Revere residents.

As of October 2018, market-rate rents in that neighborhood were an estimated $1,850, $2,175, and $2,650 for one-, two-, and three-bedroom units, respectively, according to Mares.

Rents at 571 Revere St. will be $1,266, $1,520, and $1,755 except for the workforce units, all one-bedrooms, which will rent for $1,778. But most rents will be subsidized based on tenant income.

The Neighborhood Developers owns 461 rental apartments in Chelsea and Revere, some of which it developed. Its Revere properties include two in the Shirley Avenue neighborhood, which is in the vicinity of the beach but is not seeing the rapid development of new market-rate units.

Bob O’Brien, Revere’s director of economic development, said the city has enjoyed a “successful and very positive relationship with The Neighborhood Developers over the years,” and welcomes its latest project.

The future affordable units will complement the market-rate apartments in Waterfront Square, O’Brien said, adding that the new building also was designed to be visually compatible with those in the square.

In addition to its new residential units, Waterfront Square when completed will encompass a 172-room Marriott Hotel and five restaurants, among other public amenities. The development also has been supported by such public investments as construction of a new pedestrian bridge linking Wonderland Station and Revere Beach.

O’Brien said the Revere Street project advances the city’s goal of expanding affordable housing, including near the beach. He noted that low-cost housing in the area is not unprecedented, citing the Jack Satter House, a decades-old 266-unit senior complex that continues to operate on Revere Beach Boulevard.

He also observed that the Waterfront Square apartments, though market-rate, are lower priced than comparable ones in Boston.

The Revere Street property was formerly the site of The Cove, a bar that closed in 2014. The Neighborhood Developers bought the parcel in 2017.

The project is being undertaken with the help of a mix of state and federal funds, including $7.9 million in financing from MassHousing.

A lottery to select future tenants is expected next winter.

John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.

SourceLISC Boston

LISC Expands Funding for Affordable Housing Near Transit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Karen Kelleher, LISC Boston
617.410.4343 | kkelleher@lisc.org

Tia M. Vice, LISC Boston
617.410.4343 | tvice@lisc.org

LISC EXPANDS FUNDING FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEAR TRANSIT
LISC is pleased to announce a new investment in the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Accelerator Fund

BOSTON (February 11, 2020) – Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is pleased to announce an increase in the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Accelerator Fund (ETODAF or the Fund). The Fund is a revolving loan fund that has seeded the preservation or development of more than 1,500 apartments located near transit throughout Boston and Massachusetts since 2014, 72% of them affordable to low-income households. The new investment will help the Fund support the development of more affordable housing with access to transit by providing critical early-stage financing.

Fund Background. The Fund was created by LISCBoston, The Boston Foundation, and the Hyams Foundation in 2014 to provide developers of affordable housing with streamlined access to acquisition and predevelopment capital to acquire and advance key properties along transit corridors. The foundations each invested $1.5 million for 10 years at a very low interest rate. LISC paired that with a $1 million MassWorks grant from the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, through MassDevelopment for a total revolving fund of $4 million. LISC has leveraged that capital with $7 million of its own funds and a similar amount from other community development financial institutions. The resulting $18 million of investment has seeded the acquisition and development of more than 1,500 apartments within walking distance of transit, 1,100 of them affordable to low-income tenants, and will attract over $400 million of additional investment.

Why Transit-Oriented Development? ETODAF-funded projects must be located within a quarter to a half-mile of a subway, train or major bus line, to ensure that residents have equitable access to affordable transit, which usually translates to access to jobs, education, health care, shopping, services, and other critical resources and amenities. Where done successfully by a community-focused developer, transit-oriented development also attracts businesses and jobs, maximizes existing infrastructure, and capitalizes on new investments to make neighborhoods more vibrant. The Fund can be used throughout the Commonwealth, and has invested in thirteen different neighborhoods, empowering developers revitalizing their communities in some cases, and those staving off displacement in others.

The Fund’s Impact. The Fund has seeded the development of 22 affordable or mixed-income apartment properties near transit, all of them by nonprofit developers and most by local community development corporations. These developments will result in more than 1,500 housing units, with 72% of those units restricted as affordable for at least 30 years. Construction and operation of the affordable units requires additional construction and permanent financing and subsidy, but ETODAF provides critical early-stage financing that enables fast action to acquire parcels and replaces the cash equity developers otherwise need to buy properties in a hot market and to finance the early, high-risk predevelopment costs that other lenders will not finance. The Fund has invested in both rental and homeownership units, in new construction and preservation, and in diverse communities including Gateway Cities, suburban communities, and Boston neighborhoods.

Catalyzing Community-Based Development by Sharing Risk. While most lenders will only lend a buyer 70 or 80 percent of the property’s value, ETODAF lends more than the property value to empower affordable developers to secure these critical parcels. This means the Fund takes on some of the risk that a developer typically bears. This makes the Fund particularly useful for community-based nonprofit developers who lack cash reserves needed to put their own equity into an acquisition. All of ETODAF’s borrowers to-date have been nonprofit organizations. For-profit affordable housing developers are eligible to borrow from the Fund for eligible projects, but they would pay a higher interest rate.

New Investment in the Fund. Partners HealthCare recently became the newest investor in the Fund, joining the two foundations as a low-cost investor, with a $1.5 million investment that matches the foundations’ initial investments, making it an equal investment partner. Partners HealthCare answered LISC’s call for an investor at this level to increase the fund’s impact quickly. The Fund has been fully deployed for some time, making new loans only when prior loans are repaid. Partners stepped in because it understands how fundamental affordable, stable housing is to health. Its investment enables LISC to achieve even greater leverage with this small but impactful fund.

A Growing Partnership Between Health Care and Community Development. With this investment, Partners HealthCare joins a growing list of healthcare institutions nationally that are partnering with community development organizations like LISC to support healthy, economically strong families and communities. Partners HealthCare, like many health institutions, understands that as much as 80% of health outcomes are determined by social factors such as whether one has safe, affordable housing, economic stability, access to healthy food and opportunities for recreation. These so-called social determinants of health are at the heart of comprehensive community development, the focus of LISC’s work for 40 years. Partners joins ProMedica, Sentara Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, Atrium Health and other health systems around the country working with LISC to coinvest in healthy communities.

Housing and Health Partnerships in Communities. Most recently, the Fund invested, together with LISC and Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), in an acquisition loan to The Neighborhood Developers, Inc. (TND), a nonprofit community development corporation that works in Chelsea, Revere and Everett. TND used the financing to purchase 181 Chestnut Street, a 32-unit market-rate multifamily building in Chelsea near Bellingham Square, on the MBTA’s Silver Line. Given the pace of development in the neighborhood, the building would otherwise have sold to a profit-motivated purchaser who would likely have raised the existing below-market rents, resulting in displacement or financial instability for the existing tenants.

Instead, TND will make modest repairs and commit to keeping most of the units affordable long-term to tenants of low- and moderate-income levels. The Fund and LISC provided flexible, low-cost capital via a participation in a loan originated by CEDAC, a public-private community development finance institution. The Fund’s investment would not have been possible without the recent infusion of capital from Partners. Partners was particularly excited for the Fund to support stable, affordable housing in Chelsea where it is deeply invested at a property that is walking distance from the Mass General Hospital’s Chelsea HealthCare Center.

According to LISC Executive Director Karen Kelleher, there is great demand for additional flexible, low-cost financing for properties like this one, particularly where the city or town is willing to invest public dollars to support long-term affordability. “The Commonwealth, particularly Greater Boston, is facing both a housing affordability crisis and a transit crisis. We are eager to work with more civic leaders like Partners to step up and invest in solutions that prioritize community health and equity and link housing and transit.”

“Developing and protecting affordable housing within reach of transit is a game-changer for thousands of people in Greater Boston,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “These developments not only provide and sustain affordable housing that is so critical for individuals, workers and families, they also provide easier access to jobs and services that have a powerful impact on quality of life. We welcome Partners’ addition to the Fund.”

###

About LISC

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) provides grants, financing, and technical assistance to community development corporations (CDCs), nonprofit developers, grassroots organizations, as well as policy and advocacy organizations throughout Massachusetts. Working with local leaders, we invest in affordable housing, health, education, public safety and employment. As part of a national organization with deep local roots, LISC Boston is uniquely positioned to share resources, develop best practices, and craft innovations with the communities we serve. To learn more, visit http://www.lisc.org/boston .

About The Boston Foundation

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, seeks to bring the collective power of our region’s people and resources together to drive real change. Established in 1915, it is one of the largest community foundations in the nation—with net assets of $1.3 billion. In 2019, the Foundation received $151 million in contributions and the Foundation and its donors paid $153 million in grants to nonprofit organizations. The Foundation has many partners, including its donors, who have established more than 1,000 separate charitable funds for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. With support from the Annual Campaign for Civic Leadership, the Foundation also facilitates public discourse and action, commissions research into the most critical issues of our time and advocates for public policy that advances opportunity for everyone.

About The Hyams Foundation

The Hyams Foundation is a private, independent foundation with a mission of increasing economic, racial and social justice and power within low-income communities in Boston and Chelsea, Massachusetts. Our vision for the future is a society in which systems and structures are transformed to create the conditions for increased collective well-being and produce equitable power, access, opportunities and outcomes, regardless of race. For more about Hyams, visit www.hyamsfoundation.org .

About Partners HealthCare

Partners HealthCare is an integrated health care system, founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, that offers patients a continuum of coordinated and high-quality care. In addition to its two academic medical centers, the system includes community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, a physician network, community health centers, home health and long-term care services, and other health care entities. Partners is a non-profit organization that is committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Partners is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations and is a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

About The Neighborhood Developers

The Neighborhood Developers (TND) promotes economic diversity, opportunity and quality of life in struggling communities. TND’s mission is to bring its core strengths—building homes, engaging neighbors, and fostering economic mobility—to community partnerships that create great neighborhoods where all people can thrive. Our work deepens the impact and scale our strengths through strategic growth, community leadership, strong partnerships, and refined programming. For additional information on TND, please visit https://theneighborhooddevelopers.org/ .

About CEDAC

CEDAC is a public-private community development finance institution that provides financial resources and technical expertise for community-based and other non-profit organizations engaged in effective community development in Massachusetts. CEDAC’s work supports two key building blocks of community development: affordable housing and early care and education. CEDAC is also active in state and national housing preservation policy research and development and is widely recognized as a leader in the non-profit community development industry. For additional information on CEDAC and its current projects, please visit www.cedac.org .

SourceLISC Boston

Local Initiatives Support Corporation Expands Funding for Affordable Housing Near Transit

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) announced an increase in the Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Accelerator Fund (ETODAF or the Fund).

The Fund is a revolving loan fund that has seeded the preservation or development of more than 1,500 apartments located near transit throughout Boston and Massachusetts since 2014, 72% of them affordable to low-income households. The new investment will help the Fund support the development of more affordable housing with access to transit by providing critical early-stage financing.

Fund Background

The Fund was created by LISCBoston, The Boston Foundation, and the Hyams Foundation in 2014 to provide developers of affordable housing with streamlined access to acquisition and predevelopment capital to acquire and advance key properties along transit corridors. The foundations each invested $1.5 million for 10 years at a very low interest rate. LISC paired that with a $1 million MassWorks grant from the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, through MassDevelopment for a total revolving fund of $4 million.

LISC has leveraged that capital with $7 million of its own funds and a similar amount from other community development financial institutions. The resulting $18 million of investment has seeded the acquisition and development of more than 1,500 apartments within walking distance of transit, 1,100 of them affordable to low-income tenants, and will attract over $400 million of additional investment.

Why Transit-Oriented Development?

ETODAF-funded projects must be located within a quarter to a half-mile of a subway, train or major bus line, to ensure that residents have equitable access to affordable transit, which usually translates to access to jobs, education, health care, shopping, services, and other critical resources and amenities. Where done successfully by a community-focused developer, transit-oriented development also attracts businesses and jobs, maximizes existing infrastructure, and capitalizes on new investments to make neighborhoods more vibrant.

The Fund can be used throughout the Commonwealth, and has invested in thirteen different neighborhoods, empowering developers revitalizing their communities in some cases, and those staving off displacement in others.

The Fund’s Impact

The Fund has seeded the development of 22 affordable or mixed-income apartment properties near transit, all of them by nonprofit developers and most by local community development corporations. These developments will result in more than 1,500 housing units, with 72% of those units restricted as affordable for at least 30 years. Construction and operation of the affordable units requires additional construction and permanent financing and subsidy, but ETODAF provides critical early-stage financing that enables fast action to acquire parcels and replaces the cash equity developers otherwise need to buy properties in a hot market and to finance the early, high-risk predevelopment costs that other lenders will not finance.

The Fund has invested in both rental and homeownership units, in new construction and preservation, and in diverse communities including Gateway Cities, suburban communities, and Boston neighborhoods.

Catalyzing Community-Based Development by Sharing Risk

While most lenders will only lend a buyer 70 or 80 percent of the property’s value, ETODAF lends more than the property value to empower affordable developers to secure these critical parcels. This means the Fund takes on some of the risk that a developer typically bears. This makes the Fund particularly useful for community-based nonprofit developers who lack cash reserves needed to put their own equity into an acquisition. All of ETODAF’s borrowers to-date have been nonprofit organizations. For-profit affordable housing developers are eligible to borrow from the Fund for eligible projects, but they would pay a higher interest rate.

New Investment in the Fund

Partners HealthCare recently became the newest investor in the Fund, joining the two foundations as a low-cost investor, with a $1.5 million investment that matches the foundations’ initial investments, making it an equal investment partner. Partners HealthCare answered LISC’s call for an investor at this level to increase the fund’s impact quickly. The Fund has been fully deployed for some time, making new loans only when prior loans are repaid. Partners stepped in because it understands how fundamental affordable, stable housing is to health. Its investment enables LISC to achieve even greater leverage with this small but impactful fund.

A Growing Partnership Between Health Care and Community Development

With this investment, Partners HealthCare joins a growing list of healthcare institutions nationally that are partnering with community development organizations like LISC to support healthy, economically strong families and communities. Partners HealthCare, like many health institutions, understands that as much as 80% of health outcomes are determined by social factors such as whether one has safe, affordable housing, economic stability, access to healthy food and opportunities for recreation. These so-called social determinants of health are at the heart of comprehensive community development, the focus of LISC’s work for 40 years. Partners joins ProMedica, Sentara Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, Atrium Health and other health systems around the country working with LISC to coinvest in healthy communities.

Housing and Health Partnerships in Communities

Most recently, the Fund invested, together with LISC and Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), in an acquisition loan to The Neighborhood Developers, Inc. (TND), a nonprofit community development corporation that works in Chelsea, Revere and Everett. TND used the financing to purchase 181 Chestnut Street, a 32-unit market-rate multifamily building in Chelsea near Bellingham Square, on the MBTA’s Silver Line. Given the pace of development in the neighborhood, the building would otherwise have sold to a profit-motivated purchaser who would likely have raised the existing below-market rents, resulting in displacement or financial instability for the existing tenants.

SourceBoston Real Estate Times

Belchertown Day School buys land at former State School site for early childhood education center

Belchertown Day School has purchased two acres the former site of the Belchertown State School, where it plans to build a 8,600-square-foot early-childhood education center and afterschool facility.

MassDevelopment announced the sale in a news release Wednesday.

“We no longer will be renting; we will have a school to call our own that will be a forever home,” the school’s executive director Pat Bruni said in an interview Wednesday. “This new school means so much to us.”

Belchertown Day School paid $133,333 for the land, according to documents filed Dec. 11 at the Hampshire County Registry of Deeds. The seller was the Belchertown Economic Development industrial Corp.

Also on file is a document requiring Belchertown Day School to build the childcare facility and to start construction within six months of buying the land.

MassDevelopment also said a new road at the 55-acre site, called Carriage Drive, opened in December.

At over a third of a mile, Carriage Drive opens the Carriage Grove neighborhood for residential, commercial, and industrial uses and realigns Jackson Street to move traffic away from an established neighborhood. The Day School site is on Carriage Drive.

MassDevelopment calls Carriage Grove a “new neighborhood” at the State School site, part of a master plan for up to 581,000 square feet of mixed-use development.

“MassDevelopment is proud to oversee the development of Carriage Grove from a former state school into a first-rate mixed-use neighborhood,” MassDevelopment President and CEO Lauren Liss said in a statement. “The addition of Belchertown Day School, Inc. and the recent completion of Carriage Drive mark two exciting milestones in our redevelopment efforts, and create momentum toward the build-out of this community.”

Carriage Drive opened Dec. 1, 2019. Funding included a $3 million grant from the Commonwealth’s MassWorks Infrastructure Program, according to the release.

Founded in 1977, Belchertown Day School is a nonprofit providing early childhood education for more than 100 children between ages 15 months and 12 years old. It has toddler and preschool classes, before and after-school programming and vacation and summer programming, according to a news release.

Belchertown Day School currently operates out of leased space at 432 State St. in Belchertown.

Deeds documents show at least $2.9 million in funding for the project. The new building will be financed by Children’s Investment Fund’s Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund, according to deeds documents. Additional financing is from Blue Hub Capital and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Facilities Program.

At least a quarter of the 110 slots in the new school will be set aside for children from low-income families.

Following the Belchertown State School’s closure in 1992, the Belchertown Economic Development and Industrial Corporation purchased the Carriage Grove site from the state, according to Wednesday’s news release. The main campus of the property contained almost 400,000 square feet of abandoned buildings and utility tunnels with significant environmental issues that required abatement and demolition.

MassDevelopment is the state’s finance and development agency.

The Belchertown Planning Board approved a site plan for the Day School in February 2019.

Jim Russell contributed reporting.

SourceMassLive

Pelham affordable housing project gets some seed funding

A project to bring 34 affordable housing units to an Amherst Road property that features a former fly rod factory building and farmhouse is moving forward.

The Community Economic Development Assistance Corp. of Boston announced Wednesday that it would commit $200,000 in predevelopment financing, through a loan to Home City Development Inc. of Springfield, for what would be known as Amethyst Brook Apartments.

The $12 million project in West Pelham could be the first in town developed under the state’s Chapter 40B comprehensive zoning law, which allows affordable housing projects to be permitted that otherwise would not be allowed under town zoning.

The 9½-acre site at 18 and 22 Amherst Road includes the farmhouse and several outbuildings, along with the small factory building, occupied by book publisher HRD Press, on the brook where the Bartlett Rod Shop Co. once operated. The adjacent stone dam, which had been part of the waterway since 1820, was decommissioned by the state in 2007 and demolished in 2012.

The farmhouse will be converted into six apartments, while the other buildings will be demolished and replaced with a new 28-unit building. On-site parking will be available for 49 vehicles.

To meet affordability, the units would be rented at 60% of median area income or less, which for a family of four means earning $53,000 or less annually.

The developer will dedicate five acres as conservation land.

Tilman Lukas, chairman of the Pelham Housing Committee, said his committee has been supportive of having an affordable housing project such as this, calling it a unique chance for families, couples and senior citizens.

“In my opinion, this is a project to bring the community a lot of affordable units,” Lukas said.

In fact, the committee conceived the project, which is within walking distance of the Pelham Elementary School and Pelham Library, and close to the Amherst town line.

Plans currently show 24 one-bedroom apartments, seven two-bedroom apartments and three three-bedroom apartments. Lukas said the town and developer could also enact a local preference to ensure people already living in Pelham could live at Amethyst Brook.

Lukas said Home City has sent a project eligibility letter to the Department of Housing and Community Development and anticipates applying for chapter 40B funding later this year. The project would also rely on the low-income housing tax credit financing program.

Town Meeting this spring could be asked to commit Community Preservation Act money, up to $500,000, to the project.

Even if all financing and permitting goes off without a hitch, the project likely wouldn’t break ground until 2022, Lukas said.

Roger Herzog, executive director of Community Economic Development Assistance Corp., said in a statement that rural communities need affordable housing, but have fewer opportunities than larger towns and cities to get such projects completed.

“We are excited to support the efforts of an excellent nonprofit housing developer, in partnership with local residents, to develop much-needed affordable housing in Pelham,” Herzog said.

SourceDaily Gazette Hampshire

Boston-Area Mixed-Income Asset Lands Construction Financing

NeighborWorks Housing Solutions has received $4.7 million in construction financing for Sycamore on Main, a mixed-income community in Brockton, Mass. The property will encompass 48 deed-restricted units which will be affordable for residents who earn a vast array of incomes.

The project received a $2.9 million permanent loan from MassHousing, $1.8 million from the agency’s Workforce Housing Initiative, and $1 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which it manages on behalf of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

Additional funding sources for the development include $6.7 million in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) equity, $6 million in state LIHTC equity, another $2.7 million provided by DHCD, $750,000 in supportive housing funds from the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), $450,000 in local HOME funding and a $300,000 sponsor loan.

Located at 121 Main St. in downtown Brockton, the transit-oriented property is half a mile from the city’s commuter rail station. Several shopping and dining opportunities are available within walking distance.

AFFORDABLE WORKFORCE HOUSING

The community will reserve 18 units for earners of up to 90 percent of the area’s median income, 22 units for residents earning 60 percent or less, and eight units for households earning at or below 30 percent. Brockton’s area median income is $93,400 for a household of four. The workforce-apartments will include floorplans for one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, as well as a street-level retail space.

NeighborWorks partnered with NEI General Contracting to develop the Utile Inc.-designed project. Trinity Management will assume management responsibilities. Construction on Sycamore on Main began last October and is expected to conclude in early 2021.

SourceMulti-Housing News

Making room for growth, GLCAC makes final push to fund new, bigger daycare center

Sharing the parking lot with a Dunkin’, the building looks a lot like a strip mall.

That’s because at one time, it was.

From the outside, the Child Care Center at 581 Andover St. is quite non-descript. A bunch of cars, some buses, the aforementioned Dunkin’ are all visible from the street.

Then there is the building, emblazoned with the sign indicating it is a school facility owned by the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council, or GLCAC.

Once a supermarket, the inside of the pre-school for low-income children and their families has been transformed over the years into a warm, inviting learning environment.

Teachers have created beautiful murals in the hallways. Classrooms are adorned with decorations. Mini chairs and low tables are filled with smiling children, eating raspberry yogurt “and granola,” as one young girl with curly red hair explains.

But the building, and the grounds around it, have outlived their usefulness. Quietly, almost stealthily, the board of directors of GLCAC over the past three years has raised $7.9 million to build a new school on the same piece of property. The group just received a $1 million donation from the state, bringing the total raised to $8.96 million.

Another $440,000 is needed to meet the goal of $9.4 million, and school officials are bullish about the project and the fund-raising.

“We looked for another building,” said GLCAC Executive Director Evelyn Friedman. “We wanted to stay in Lawrence and build a facility for 250 kids. Everything we found was too big or too small, so we decided to rebuild on-site.”

The existing building is about 20,000 square feet on one level. The new building will be 30,000 square feet on two levels and the number of students will increase from the current 200 to the goal of 250.

“We only have $441,000 left to raise,” said Jennifer Carter, director of program planning and evaluation, who is also responsible for grant-writing. She said $660,000 has been raised from individuals and family members, another $70,000 from staff and board members.

Sara Morin works with Carter and helps organize the annual gala in April. She said she is hopeful that event will put the organization over the top and that the white tip of the oversized fund-raising thermometer will turn red by spring.

In obvious need of expansion

During a tour of the facility last week, it became clear very quickly how much the school needs more space.

Items were stored in the hallways. Classes were doubled up in many cases.

A gym, also known as the “gross-motor room,” is tiny and can only handle 10 children at a time.

The new facility will have two much larger gross-motor rooms, enabling more children to play at any given time.

Classrooms will no longer be doubled up: In the current facility, one classroom has 20 kids on one side with two teachers. A makeshift wall of cabinets and desks marks a boundary of sorts, inside of which are 10 kids with one teacher.

In the new facility, there will be 20 kids per classroom, with two teachers in each. No shared space.

Jessi Surette, whose title is “inclusion coach” and whose job is to help children with behavioral difficulties, is looking forward to the new facility.

“It will be so much bigger, with more room for classrooms, and it will serve more children,” she said.

Adelaida Guzman, a teacher of 10 years, said she was hopeful about the new school, noting that with more room comes “more decorations which will make the kids more interested” in learning.

Other problems abound in the old school.

For example, the 13 employees in the transportation division are jammed into a small room in the center of the building. A room for teachers to do lesson plans is even smaller, but it is the only place in the building with WiFi.

The new school will offer larger rooms for these and other programs, as well as more and larger administrative offices, where employees are now doubled-up.

The new facility will have one, large kitchen, where food will be prepared for the six schools under the GLCAC banner throughout the city. The agency will hire at least 20 new teachers and staff.

Grateful for grants, donations

Outside, the differences will also be dramatic.

The way the construction is planned, the new building will be adjacent to the existing building, on top of the playground for the older kids and on top of what is now the parking lot for buses. It will go from the back to the front of the property at Andover Street.

When the new building is done, everyone will be moved over and the old building will be razed, making way for a brand-new playground, more parking, and a driveway that will carry buses and cars out the side of the property, onto Diamond Street.

Currently, buses trundle into the front entrance, pick up students, and then back up and out the exit/entry. Making matters worse is that customers going to Dunkin’ have a tendency to use the entrance to the school before going left to the drive-through.

Under the new scheme, the Dunkin’ driveway will be isolated from the rest of the property with landscaping and curbing.

Friedman said she was very thankful for all the support the agency has received for the new school, especially the $1 million grant from the Baker-Polito administration through the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation.

The grant was announced last month as part of a $6 million gift to child care programs across the state.

“Our administration is pleased to support facility improvements at early education and care programs throughout the Commonwealth to provide families with the resources necessary for success in and out of the classroom,” Baker said during a ceremony Dec. 19 at the YMCA Cape Cod in Hyannis, one of the facilities benefiting from the state program.

“Renovating and repairing child care facilities helps achieve the administration’s goal of providing quality early education and care in all Massachusetts communities.”

SourceThe Eagle-Tribune

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Category: CEDAC