BOSTON–Trinity Financial, Inc. announced that the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority has awarded Trinity’s Meriden development $1.32 million in Federal 9% Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), which equates to $13.2 million over the funding program’s ten-year credit period.
This package of tax credits is a key component of the project’s financing and completes the funding necessary to move the development into construction.
“We are grateful that CHFA has included our Meriden project in this series of LIHTC awards,” said Dan Drazen, Vice President, Development for Trinity Financial. “By repurposing an historic asset, this development will breathe new life into an underutilized building, remediate a contaminated Brownfields site, create more affordable housing for individuals and families at several income levels, and provide easy access to public transit.”
Located at 85 Tremont Street, the Meriden development is one of seven projects that received LIHTC funding from CHFA. Altogether the projects will create or rehabilitate 370 rental units, 320 of them designated as affordable. Trinity’s Meriden project is one of five developments in CHFA’s New Construction Classification.
“The LIHTC program is one of our greatest tools to combat the affordable housing shortage in our state,” said Nandini Natarajan, CHFA’s Chief Executive Officer-Executive Director, in the agency’s formal announcement of the tax credit awards.
The Meriden project will contain 55 one and two-bedroom units and will include the adaptive reuse of the historic Aeolian Company building that was constructed between 1887 and 1920. A second portion of the development, which will be financed separately but constructed simultaneously, will contain 27 additional mixed-income units for a total of 82 apartments. The site’s access to several bus lines makes it consistent with Trinity’s strong commitment to creating more transit-oriented development. Eleven of the 55 units are designated HUD Section 811 and reserved for households earning at or below the 25% area median income (AMI). Three units will be for households earning at or below 30% AMI, and 22 units are for households earning at or below 50% AMI. An additional eight units are reserved for households earning at or below 80% AMI. The remaining eleven units are unrestricted, market-rate apartments.
The 85 Tremont Street complex was originally home to the Aeolian Company from the late 1800s through 1930 and was the firm’s first purpose-built facility. Aeolian was an internationally renowned manufacturer of automatic musical instruments, primarily organs and player pianos, and the music rolls that they used to play different tunes. The company rose to become the dominant producer of self-playing musical instruments in the early 1900s until the advent of the record player decimated the industry. At its height, Aeolian operated seven factories and many branches in the United States, Europe, and Australia.
