Posted on July 7, 2008
LOWELL, July 7, 2008 --- Common Ground Development Corp., a Lowell-based non-profit organization, is increasing its stake in the city and improving the neighborhood's stability by preserving the affordability of 25 apartments on Broadway in Lowell.
The Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP) helped make it happen by providing a first mortgage loan of $1.68 million and a second mortgage loan of $650,000. MHP worked with Common Ground to refinance nine units of an existing MHP-financed property at 423 Broadway. Common Ground then purchased 17 units from a landlord that wanted to sell, and restricted five additional units as affordable. The newly acquired properties are at 420, 430, and 445 Broadway.
The units include one studio apartment, nine units with one bedroom, seven with two bedrooms, and nine with three bedrooms. Thirteen apartments are affordable to households earning 50 percent of the area median income, which in Lowell is $38,160 for a family of three; one apartment is affordable to residents earning 60 percent of the area median income, and the remaining 12 are market-rate apartments.
Common Ground Development Corp. was established in 2002 as a development subsidiary of Community Teamwork, Inc. which has created affordable housing and provided social services throughout the Greater Lowell area since 1964. Altogether Common Ground and CTI own and manage over 80 units of affordable housing.
In addition to the 2002 deal in which MHP committed $635,000 in first and second mortgage financing to acquire and rehab nine units at 423 Broadway, MHP committed over $2 million in 2005 to help the Westford Housing Authority and Common Ground turn a sand pit into 15 new units known as Stony Brook Village.