Image courtesy MassHousing

A $30.3 million financing package from MassHousing will preserve 97 units of mixed-income housing in Boston’s South End and pay for the first upgrades to the property since the 1970s.

The Section 13A mortgage for the Newcastle Saranac apartments at 599 and 627 Columbus Ave. expired in March 2018, raising the possibility that the property would be sold to a private developer for conversion into market-rate housing.

The Fenway Community Development Corp. and Braintree-based Schochet Cos. acquired the property in March 2018.

The financing package helps preserve 38 units reserved for households earning 30 percent or less of the area median income, 31 units at 60 percent or less or AMI, 13 units at 80 percent of AMI and 15 units at a maximum 100 percent of AMI.

MassHousing is providing Fenway CDC with a $17.6 million tax-exempt construction and permanent loan, a $10.5 million tax credit equity bridge loan and $2.25 million in Section 13A preservation financing.

Other funding sources included $15.5 million in equity from federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits provided by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), $9 million in Section 13 preservation financing from DHCD and $1.55 million in DHCD National Housing Trust financing, $3 million from the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development (DND), $2.1 million in Fenway CDC sponsor loans, and an estimated $585,571 in income during construction.

Keith Construction serves as general contractor for the project designed by The Architectural Team of Chelsea which will include site work, building exterior updates and interior unit renovations.