Built with project eligibilty letter, $15M commitment from MHP; puts Canton over 10%
Posted on October 11, 2007
CANTON --- For the second time in three years, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership has supported Criterion Development Partners in its efforts to build multi-family rental housing in the Boston suburbs.
The latest project is Windsor Woods at Canton, a 159-unit one and two-bedroom rental development that celebrated its grand opening on Tuesday, Oct. 9.
Built through the state’s comprehensive permit bylaw known as Chapter 40B, 119 units will be rented at market rate while 40 units will be affordable to households at 80 percent of median income, which is $52,950 for a household of two and $66,150 for a household of four.
Twenty-nine of the affordable units are two-bedroom apartments and eleven affordable units are one-bedroom apartments. On the market-rate side, 34 units are one-bedroom and 85 are two-bedroom.
MHP has committed $15 million in financing from its bank-funded loan pool, which it uses to provide long-term, fixed-rate financing for affordable rental housing and at no cost to the taxpayer. Three years ago, MHP committed $15 million in financing to support another Criterion development, the 191-unit Windsor Green in Andover.
“MHP’s debt offerings have given us the opportunity to choose from a number of lost-cost alternatives and this has been very helpful for our 40B projects,” said Andrew Kaye, executive vice-president for Criterion.
In addition to financing for both projects, MHP also was the state subsidizing agency that issued Criterion its project eligibility letters, which developers need to begin the 40B permitting process. For more information about how MHP can help finance 40B projects, click here.
“Criterion has a very strong development team and we’re honored to be able to support another one of their efforts to build badly-need multi-family rental housing in the suburbs,” said Clark Ziegler, MHP’s executive director. “This project and the one in Andover reflects the quality of the development team at Criterion.”
By issuing the permit for the 40B project, the town of Canton boosted its supply of affordable housing to 11.9 percent. Towns that go over the 10 percent threshold have more control over future 40B proposals. Construction financing for the Canton project was provided by Key Bank.
MHP is a quasi-public state agency that provides long-term loans for affordable rental housing using private bank funds and at no cost to the taxpayer. This is possible due to a 1990 state law that requires companies that purchase Massachusetts banks to set aside a portion of the acquired assets to MHP. Since then, MHP's loan pool has grown to over a $1 billion and it has provided over $534 million in loans and commitments for the financing of 13,700 units of rental housing. For more information about MHP and this project, contact loan officer Megan Magrane at 617-330-9944 x269.
For more information about apartments at Windsor Woods, click here or call (866) 685-5302.