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With a final round of grant awards announced in Fitchburg yesterday, we now know how much the big million boost in tax credits for Gateway Cities developments passed by the Legislature 18 months a go will do.
The $57 million one-time allocation to the Housing Development Incentive Program, passed by state legislators in October 2023 as part of a Gov. Maura Healey tax package, plus a permanent increase in the annual HDIP budget to $30 million, will create 1,544 homes around Massachusetts, Healey’s office announced Tuesday.
Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Fitchburg’s Congresswoman Lori Trahan had gathered in the Gateway City yesterday to announce the final 10-project, $18 million round of HDIP awards funded by the legislation.
“Together, we’re making it more affordable for people to live in their communities while also attracting more business, industry and culture to our incredible Gateway Cities,” Healey said in a statement, calling HDIP “a proven success in building more reasonably-priced housing in Gateway Cities.”
HDIP gives small, typically multi-million-dollar tax credits to market-rate housing developments in Massachusetts’ 26 post-industrial Gateway Cities from Pittsfield to Barnstable. Because those markets’ rents are lower than in Greater Boston’s urban core, but their construction costs are nearly identical to expensive markets like Boston, market-rate development typically does not pencil without state help.
Gateway Cities leaders across the state say increasing market-rate housing development is vital to their communities’ long-term economic prospects, particularly by catalyzing downtown revitalizations.
Tuesday’s 10 projects ranged from the eight-unit project by Prime Real Estate Investment where Healey and other officials announced the awards – one of two Prime projects funded that day – to a 46-unit redevelopment of a former cleaner’s site in Hyannis by Falmouth developers Josuha Barros and Tammy Barros.
The largest project funded this round was the 65-unit multifamily conversion of downtown Lowell’s Mass Mills Boiler Building by Boston developer The Mullins Company.
“In Gateway Cities like Fitchburg, our historic downtowns are full of potential and growing interest… but realizing that potential takes vision, collaboration, and the right investment,” Fitchburg Mayor Sam Squailia said in a statement provided by Healey’s office. “With the support of HDIP and the Commonwealth’s collective commitment, we are able to work with our private partners to turn that vision into reality… revitalizing our historic buildings, creating hundreds of new housing units in the heart of our walkable downtown, and shaping vibrant spaces where people want to live, work, and play right here in Fitchburg.”
