BOSTON – MassHousing has provided $13.9 million in affordable housing financing to Silver Street for the refinancing and extensive rehabilitation of Jaycee Place, a 138-unit affordable housing community in Lowell, MA.
The MassHousing financing will allow Silver Street to make more than $8 million in comprehensive renovations to the property, which is home to a large percentage of lower-income senior citizens.
“Jaycee Place is an important affordable housing resource for senior citizens in Lowell, but the property is in need of significant upgrades,” said MassHousing Executive Director Chrystal Kornegay. “We are pleased to be working with Silver Street to renovate the property so that the seniors there will have modern, quality apartment homes that will allow them to continue living affordably in Lowell’s amenity-rich downtown.”
“The preservation of Jaycee Place guarantees the availability of affordable, healthy homes well into the future,” stated Matthew Kesselhaut, Managing Principal at Silver Street Development. “We are extremely pleased with the long-term plans we have put in place for Jaycee Place, benefiting not only the residents who call it home but also the Lowell community. It is truly remarkable to consider the number of people this property will assist over the coming decades as we strive to preserve this vital housing resource.”
The property’s rehabilitation scope will include fully renovated kitchens and bathrooms with EnergyStar appliances and low-flow/water-saving fixtures; a new, energy efficient, boiler system; new windows; a new roof; building façade repairs; common area amenity upgrades; seven new, fully ADA-compliant units; elevator modernization; and new, solar PV carports.
MassHousing is supporting the rehabilitation of Jaycee Place with $13.9 million in financing through the Agency’s Conduit Loan Program. MassHousing issued tax-exempt housing revenue bonds and Red Stone provided construction and permanent loans via a private placement of the bonds. This financing structure also allowed Silver Street to access $11.4 million in low-income housing tax credit equity from Boston Financial Investment Management, the tax credit syndicator.
Jaycee Place was originally developed in 1976 through the HUD Section 236 program. The 138 units are contained in a seven-story masonry building at 22 Bowers Street in Lowell. There are 123 one-bedroom apartments and 15 two-bedroom apartments. Previously, 130 of the property’s 138 units were set aside for households earning 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). However, this transaction will result in all units being affordable with 14 units being restricted to households earning up to 30 percent of AMI with the remaining units being restricted to households earning up to 60 percent of AMI. The median income for a two-person household in Lowell is $106,000.
The general contractor is Port Harbor Construction, and the management agent is Housing Management Resources, both affiliates of Silver Street. The architect is The Architectural Team.
MassHousing has financed 23 rental housing communities in Lowell involving 3,873 housing units and an original loan amount of $299.2 million. MassHousing has additionally provided $321.6 million in home mortgage financing to 2,661 Lowell homebuyers or homeowners.
