Image courtesy of MassHousing
A 62-unit mixed-income housing project in Chelsea is the first in Massachusetts to receive home ownership production funding from ARPA through a MassHousing program.
The Neighborhood Developers Inc., a Chelsea nonprofit, plans to build 56 mixed-income apartments and six condominiums in a mid-rise building at 25 Sixth St.
MassHousing provided $10.4 million in affordable and workforce housing financing to redevelop the industrial site.
The condominiums, which will be reserved for moderate-income first-time home buyers, received $1.38 million in CommonWealth Builder program funds and will be priced at $240,800 to $393,200. The program subsidizes the construction of units that are sold at prices comparable to traditional, deed-restricted affordable units. However, the deed restrictions will only stay in place for 15 years outside the city of Boston and 30 years within it, allowing the first-time buyers from low-income communities to build equity through homeownership.
The state legislature has committed $115 million in ARPA funding to expand the statewide program, which supports construction of houses and condos for mixed-income households in communities of color. Since its inception in 2019, the CommonWealth Builder program has provided $11.5 million to create 91 homeownership units.
MassHousing provided a $6.9 million permanent loan, $1.2 million in financing from the agency’s Workforce Housing Initiative and $932,500 in additional subordinate financing.
The rental financing received $13.6 million in tax credit equity from an allocation of federal and state Low Income Housing Tax Credits by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, $4.2 million in direct support from DHCD, $1 million from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $1.2 million in local funding from the North Shore HOME Consortium. Silicon Valley Bank will be the construction lender and the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. will be the tax credit syndicator.
Other funding sources in the homeownership transaction include a $3 million construction loan from Silicon Valley Bank, $300,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, $637,000 in local funding from the North Shore HOME Consortium, and $50,000 from the Charlesbank Foundation.
