Posted on August 3, 2010
CHELSEA, Aug. 3, 2010 --- On a bright summer day, Chelsea city manager Jay Ash looked around Gerrish Avenue and the new Atlas Lofts Apartments and could scarcely believe it was the same place he knew of as a boy growing up in Chelsea.
"I grew up four streets away and my mother wouldn't let me down here because it was an industrial wasteland," said Ash during opening ceremonies on July 28. "What's been done (in the Box District) is not just something to improve the neighborhood physically, we've also done something that will help the people of Chelsea enjoy a better quality of life."
Made possible due in part to a $5 million long-term loan commitment from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, Mitchell Properties developed two interconnected mill buildings in the Box District of Chelsea into 53 residential rental lofts units with 64 parking spaces. Six units will be designated as affordable to residents earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI).
"It's great to have a developer like Bart Mitchell and Mitchell Properties," said Ash. "They are not just working to make the development work for them, but they are also focused on doing what's right for the community."
The bulk of the $15 million project was financed with federal and state historic tax credits awarded by the state Department of Housing and Community Development. Additional financingis being provided by Boston Private Bank, The Life Initiative, the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp., the state's Neighborhood Stabilization Loan Fund, and funds from the North Shore HOME Consortium.
Normally a lender to rental projects that include a higher percentage of affordable units, MHP made this loan commitment through a program called the Community Revitalization Option, which is designed to promote the development of housing serving a wider range of incomes in communities seeking to spark downtown revitalization and investment.
"We're all about affordability at MHP but we're thrilled that here in Chelsea you recognize that healthy neighborhoods need income diversity," said Judy Jacobson, MHP's Deputy Director. "We've zigged and zagged with you as you have so carefully and strategically made your new neighborhood a diverse one."
This is the second rental project that MHP has committed funds to in the Box District. In 2008, MHP helped local non-profit Chelsea Neighborhood Developers create Janus Highland Apartments by committing $1.11 million in permanent mortgage financing. The project consists of 41 units of affordable rental housing in buildings on Library Street and Gerrish Avenue.
(Note: Since this article was written, MHP subsequently loaned The Neighborhood Developers $1.47 million to support the construction of 32 affordable apartments at Highland Terrace, and a $6.9 million loan to Mitchell Properties for the construction of 46 mixed-income units for Standard Box Apartments, Phase 1. Both are in the Box District).
MHP is able to provide these long-term loan commitments due to 1990 law that requires companies that purchase Massachusetts banks to make bank loan funds available to MHP. Since then, MHP's loan pool has grown to over $1.1 billion and it has provided over $643 million for the financing of over 15,000 rental units all across the Commonwealth, at no cost to the taxpayers. Whenever possible, MHP finances projects that include units for lower and middle-income households and three-bedroom units that serve families.
For more information about MHP and this project, contact David Rockwell at drockwell@mhp.net or Nancy McCafferty at nmccafferty@mhp.net.