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Owner of building with large number of affordable units on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain proposes renovation that would keep most of the units as affordable
By adamg on Tue, 09/19/2023 - 12:38pm
The owner of the Forbes Building, 539-551 Centre St. in Jamaica Plain, says he will soon submit detailed plans to the BPDA to renovate the building and to rent 143 of the 147 units as affordable.
In a letter of intent filed yesterday, owner Paul Clayton's Jamaica Plain Company said roughly 123 apartments would be rented to people making no more than 60% of the Boston area median income and another 20% to people making no more than 80% of that amount. BPDA says Clayton is working with the state to obtain vouchers that would let him rent some units to people making even less than those amounts.
The building, on a 1.59-acre lot, was built in 1978 with low-interest state loans requiring most of the units be rented at below-market rates for 40 years - a period that expired several years ago.
Today, most of the building's residents are senior citizens or people with disabilities - and their future has become a key issue for both them and others in Jamaica Plain.
In his brief filing, Clayton said his new plans would include replacing the building's key mechanical systems and facade - in part to reduce the building's overall energy consumption.
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Comments
Is he a unicorn?
Wait so he had a loan (or someone did) that required the owner to rent the units out below market rates for 40 years.. AND it expired..
AND he wants to keep it affordable? (and not flip it to 'luxury' condos?)
Is he a unicorn?
PS - Why aren't we doing loans like this now to help with the housing crunch? Seems to me that if we did this, some of those thirsty developers might appeal to this. Or maybe have some smaller fry ones who could now afford to build this stuff.
There are some programs now
Although they seem to be more tax credits than loans, but with the same basic idea. For example, the Beverly, the last thing you see before you die, um, before you go back underground on I-93 south from the Zakim/Storrow Drive, relied heavily on various tax credit programs (but also some state bond program) to get built as an all affordable building (although their definition of "affordable" went as high as 165% of the Boston-area median income).
Not a unicorn, just another
Not a unicorn, just another way of doing business. A similar scenario played out at 855 Broadway in Chelsea not too long ago.
In this case the owner of the building in JP is in negotiations with government entities to sign a new contract to preserve the current use for a period of time in exchange for funds etc.
In the whole scheme of things I imagine that they could make more money turning it market rate but that would require more extensive renovations, more demands from residents and the extensive amount of legal and professional trouble that goes into evicting so many low income people. So when you weigh all that with a desire to help people it really tips the scales towards preservation of possible.