Just A Start Secures $8.5M from MassHousing for 24 New Affordable Units in Cambridge

MassHousing has closed on $8.5 million in affordable housing financing to the nonprofit Just A Start for the development of 24 new affordable apartments on its Rindge Tower property in Cambridge, MA.

Just A Start will construct a new six-story, wood-framed building containing the new affordable rental homes, as well as 40,000 square feet of space to be used by Just A Start for its new Economic Mobility Hub, which will include education and training facilities, and administrative offices, and by the city of Cambridge for use as preschool classroom spaces with priority enrollment for residents within Rindge Commons. 

 The Rindge Tower property is located across the street from the Alewife MBTA subway station. The new Rindge Commons property will sit at the corner of Rindge Avenue and Alewife Brook Parkway, on an underutilized portion of a surface parking lot. 

There will be 10 one-bedroom apartments and 14 two-bedroom apartments. Of the 24 new apartments, five will be restricted to households earning up to 30% AMI and supported by either a federal Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment contract (three units) or by the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program (two units), and 19 apartments will be restricted to households earning up to 60 percent of AMI.

MassHousing is providing Just A Start with a $3.4 million tax-exempt permanent loan and a $5.1 million tax-exempt bridge loan. Other financing sources include $7.7 million in tax credit equity from an allocation of Low Income Housing Tax Credits by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), $1.3 million in direct support from DHCD, $3.7 million from the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust, $9 million in construction financing from Citizens Bank, and $800,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which MassHousing manages on behalf of DHCD. RBC Community Investments will be the tax credit syndicator.

The contractor will be Dellbrook JKS, the architect is ICON Architecture and the management agent will be the Wingate Companies.