MassDevelopment Selects The Community Builders as Developer for Village Hill Northampton Site
April 11, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Meggie Quackenbush, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2011 & 857-208-2777 (cell)
mquackenbush@massdevelopment.com
Jacquinn Sinclair, The Community Builders, 857-221-8794
jsinclair@tcbinc.org
MassDevelopment has selected The Community Builders (TCB), a national nonprofit housing developer based in Boston, as the developer for a 29-acre portion of a 35-acre parcel of residential land at Village Hill Northampton. TCB, in collaboration with Valley Community Development Corporation, plans to build 65 apartment units and 2,500 square feet of commercial space on two Village Hill parcels. Fifty-five percent of the apartments will be affordable to households earning 60 percent of the area’s median income, and the remaining units will be affordable to households earning 120 percent of the area’s median income. MassDevelopment also set aside a five-acre portion of the parcel for the Village Hill Cohousing Group, which had been working with the site’s previous developer, Energy Positive Homes, to develop cohousing. The Group will have seven months to search for a new cohousing developer. The Agency will retain ownership of a one-acre portion to develop five single-family houses, townhouses, or duplexes compatible with existing Village Hill Northampton homes.
“The Community Builders has successfully partnered with MassDevelopment on many housing projects throughout the Commonwealth, and we are thrilled to work with them once again at Village Hill Northampton,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “This project will provide a variety of affordable housing options and valuable open space to Northampton residents. MassDevelopment is excited to work with TCB to make VHN even more vibrant.”
In Village Hill Northampton, MassDevelopment has transformed a former state hospital into a community featuring office, retail, and manufacturing uses; market-rate and affordable homes and apartments; and a variety of open space and recreation areas. To date, the property has 191 housing units, including single-family and multifamily homes, townhouses, and duplexes, along with more than 400 employees in several businesses. The Community Builders has previously partnered with MassDevelopment at Village Hill Northampton in developing two apartment complexes, Hillside Place and Hilltop Apartments.
The Community Builders Inc. is a leading nonprofit real estate developer and owner. Its mission is to build and sustain strong communities where people of all incomes can achieve their full potential. The organization realizes that mission by developing, financing and operating high-quality housing and implementing neighborhood-based models that drive economic opportunity for residents. Since 1964, The Community Builders have constructed or preserved hundreds of affordable and mixed-income housing developments, and secured billions of dollars in project financing from public and private sources. Today, it owns or manages 11,000 apartments in 14 states and is headquartered in Boston with regional hubs in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
“We are delighted that MassDevelopment has selected TCB to develop new workforce and affordable rental housing on this beautiful site,” said Eliza Datta, TCB’s regional vice president of development, New England. “We look forward to building on the success of our previous mixed-income development work at Village Hill and creating new opportunities for families of all incomes to live in this special community.”
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.