MassDevelopment

MassDevelopment Bond Finances Dorchester Housing Renovation


November 3, 2016


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Meggie Quackenbush, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2011 & 857-208-2777 (cell)
mquackenbush@massdevelopment.com

Daniel Cruz, Jr., Cruz Development Corporation, 617-445-6901
DCruz@cruzcompanies.com

MassDevelopment has issued a $16,037,135 tax-exempt bond on behalf of Wayne at Bicknell LLC, a 72-unit multi-family rental housing facility in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. The financing will preserve all 72 units of affordable housing rented to households earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income. Cruz Development Corporation of Roxbury, the project’s developer, is using bond proceeds to install new kitchens, bathrooms, heating and sprinkler systems, roofs, windows and wood flooring in units throughout the facility. Cruz Development is also using proceeds to fund extensive masonry repairs, electrical and plumbing upgrades, and miscellaneous painting. The Agency also assisted the Department of Housing and Community Development with the approval of $10.4 million in equity from federal low income housing tax credits. Boston Private Bank purchased the bond.

“Preserving quality affordable housing is crucial to the overall economic strength of the Commonwealth,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “MassDevelopment is pleased to partner with Cruz Development for a third time and to support the upgrade of these residences in Dorchester.”

The Wayne at Bicknell project is part of the overall redevelopment and preservation of the Wayne Apartments, a scattered site development serving 349 lower-income households in Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. Cruz Development was also the developer at Wayne at Columbia project in 2014, which used proceeds from a $20 million MassDevelopment tax-exempt bond for the renovation of seven buildings containing 83 units of affordable housing. The Agency also issued a $9.9 million bond on behalf of Wayne at Franklin Hill, a major renovation of 72 units of affordable housing.

“We are pleased to partner once again with MassDevelopment on the Wayne redevelopment initiative,” said Daniel Cruz, Jr., Senior Vice President at Cruz Development Corporation. “The folks at the Agency are adept at combining complex deal structure with ease of transaction.”

“We are very proud of the fact that, as in our prior projects at Wayne, we have committed a minimum of 50 percent of all jobs and 50 percent of all contracts created by this project go to folks and firms of color,” said John B. Cruz III, President of The Cruz Companies.

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2016, MassDevelopment financed or managed 352 projects generating investment of more than $4 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create about 8,200 jobs and build or rehabilitate about 4,200 residential units.