Woonsocket gets $6.9M
loan for affordable housing
Citizens Bank investment aids mixed-use project
By
Katie
Haughey, Staff Writer,
Providence Business News
Construction is already
well under way on Front Street in Woonsocket on a project that
includes 43 apartment units and some commercial space.
Photo courtesy of Eric Shorter, R.I. LISC
The
Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation last month
received a $6.9 million
loan to build affordable
housing and commercial space on Front Street from Citizens
Bank.
The “Heritage Place”
loan is the first approved
under the Citizens Housing Bank $200 million
loan effort to provide funds
to nonprofit housing developers in New England. Citizens has a
dozen loans for similar projects in the pipeline, said Kathy
O’Donnell, vice president/director of public relations for
Citizens.
Joseph Garlick, executive director of the Woonsocket
Neighborhood Development Corporation, said the Front Street
project includes 43 units of rental apartments and mixed
commercial/community storefronts.
“The housing is intended for low- to moderate-income
families,” Garlick said. “There’s a need for (affordable
housing) all over the state.”
The interest rate on the Citizens
loan is approximately 50
percent below market value for short-term construction loans.
The program offers loans at a 3 percent fixed interest rate
for three years with a 25-year amortization. For the balance
of the
loan term, interest is fixed
at the prime rate with a 6 percent cap.
Work has already begun on the Front Street project. The site
was
home to a mill in the 1930s.
After the mill burned down, the 4.5 acre shopping plaza was
home to a hardware store,
then a convenience store, Garlick said. The plaza was
abandoned when construction began in July.
Garlick said he expects the project to be finished by the end
of 2005. It will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom
townhouses on the second and third stories. They will range in
size from 600 to 1,300 square feet. Monthly rent will be
between $500 and $850 for the units, some of which include
decks, parking, laundry hookups and a community playscape.
Garlick said the project includes roughly 4,000 square feet
for
home offices on the ground
floor. The concept is intended to allow occupants of the
residential units space to run their own businesses, for
example child-care facilities.
“More and more people
work at home these days,”
Garlick said.
The “neighborhood commercial” space comprises 9,000 square
feet. Garlick said the historic Champ’s Diner will relocate to
the one of the 10 retail/commercial storefronts. And for
existing businesses that want more space, “this is perfect for
them,” Garlick said.
Residents will also have use of a 1,200-square-foot community
center.
Launched in 2004, the Citizens Housing Bank is intended to
address an affordable housing crisis in the region, bank
officials have said. The goal is to build at least 1,200 new
housing units in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire
and Connecticut.
“The
loan is what made the project
happen,” said Garlick. The total cost of the project is $10
million. The remainder is being financed by a $475,000 grant
from the Rhode Island Housing Resources Commission. The Rhode
Island Housing and
Mortgage Finance Corporation
allocated low-income housing tax credits and other funding
through its
HOME program. The credits are
essentially a grant in the form of equity that allows the rent
to remain affordable for working families. The Rhode Island
Local Initiatives Support Corporation and other state agencies
contributed.
The Federal
Home Loan Bank of Boston and
Citizens Bank of Rhode Island provided a $300,000 grant and a
$749,000, 1.5 percent
loan for the project through
their Affordable Housing Program.
<<<
BACK TO
LIST
