Less than a mile from downtown; 9 years in making; MHP commits $1.4M loan
Posted on August 24, 2011
IPSWICH, August 24, 2011 --- Less than a mile from downtown, state and localleaders gathered earlier this month to celebrate the grand opening of Powder House Village, a new rental housing development that also features a bank branch and an early-learning center for children.
"We've lived in Ipswich for a long time and thanks to Powder House Village, we can downsize but still stay in the town we love," said 45-year town resident May Witt during ribbon cutting ceremonies on Aug. 4.
Formerly the site of a home that had been converted into four apartments and a restaurant that had been closed for several years, Powder House Village was developed by The YMCA of the North Shore and features 48 new rental homes affordable to residents earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income (AMI). Twelve homes will be affordable to residents earning at or below 30 percent of AMI.
"There's a tendency to treat rental units as less desirable than homeownership units," said Clark Ziegler, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP). "But rental units are necessary too and a key ingredient in what it takes to have a vibrant community."
MHP supported Powder House Village with a long-term fixed-rate $1.4 million loan commitment from its $1.1 billion bank-funded loan pool. Most of the financing for Powder House Village was provided through federal low-income housing tax credits and $8 million in federal stimulus funds awarded by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). DHCD also provided HOME funds and funds from its Facilities Consolidation Fund.
The Institution for Savings, a local bank, provided construction financing and will occupy the new bank branch at Powder House Village. Additional financing was provided by the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, the state's Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, the state Department of Mental Health, the North Shore HOME Consortium and the Ipswich Affordable Housing Trust.
The sense of satisfaction at the Powder House Village grand opening was tangible and understandable in that the development took nine years to complete and overcame funding obstacles and community opposition which included a three-year legal battle that reached the state's Supreme Judicial Court.
"This was the longest and toughest project I've ever been involved with," said North Shore YMCA Executive Director Jack Meany, whose organization will operate the facility's early learning center. "But we have the privilege of working for the YMCA and their organizational support is what gave us the strength to stick with this project."