Posted on May 2, 2003
PROVINCETOWN, Friday, May 2, 2003 --- At the end of the Cape, where single-family home prices average $450,000 and a one bedroom can rent for as much as $10,000 a summer, residents and housing advocates gathered to celebrate the redevelopment of the old A&P grocery story site into 18 units of affordable rental housing.
The effort was made possible due in part to funding from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership.
Local resident Ted Malone developed the A&P site. Malone runs Community Housing Resource Inc., a private company whose mission is to provide affordable housing opportunities on the outer Cape.
“There’s very little year-round rental housing in Provincetown,” said Malone at ceremonies held Friday, May 2.
This is Malone’s third affordable housing effort in Provincetown, all on or just off Conwell Street, one of the major roads linking Rte. 6 with downtown Provincetown. He previously developed five units of rental housing at 27A Conwell Street and built and sold four condominiums (two affordable) at 27B Conwell Street. He also developed 18 condominiums (11 affordable) on Hensche Lane, just across the street from the old A&P site. All are within walking distance of downtown.
The A&P site now boasts 18 Cape-style two-story homes divided into four one-bedroom apartments, nine two-bedroom apartments, five three bedroom apartments and 10 artist studios, which will be rented at below-market rates. The rent for a three-bedroom apartment is $695 per month, heat included.
MHP has provided funding for all of Malone’s efforts. For the A&P development, MHP is providing $765,000 in long-term financing.
Thanks to a 1990 banking law, MHP uses lines of credit from the banking industry to provide long-term financing at below-market rates. MHP's loan fund has grown to nearly a half-billion dollars. Using these bank funds, MHP has loaned out $320 million dollars and has financed over 23,000 rental units, most of which are affordable to low-income individuals and families.
Also funding the project were the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Massachusetts Housing Equity Fund, the Massachusetts Housing and Investment Corp., and the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is administered by Mass. Housing.
For more information about MHP’s rental financing programs, call 1-877-MHP-FUND.
(PHOTO INFORMATION: The 18 new multifamily rental units in Provincetown were built on the old A&P grocery store site. Arranged around the edge of the property, with a courtyard and circular driveway in the middle, the homes include one, two and three-bedroom apartments, and artists studios, some of which are in the last building on the right.)