MassDevelopment.com: Press Room: $6.4 Million MassDevelopment Bond Supports National Consumer Law Center Purchase of Permanent Headquarters

$6.4 Million MassDevelopment Bond Supports National Consumer Law Center Purchase of Permanent Headquarters
March 25, 2008

Contacts:
Alicia Tildsley, MassDevelopment, 617-603-3120
Suzanne Cutler, National Consumer Law Center, 617-542-8010

MassDevelopment has issued $6.4 million in tax-exempt bonds for the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), a Boston-based advocacy group for low-income consumers across the United States. NCLC will use proceeds from the bonds, which were purchased by Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, to buy and renovate a commercial condominium – located at 7 Winthrop Square in the city’s Downtown Crossing neighborhood – for its first permanent headquarters. The Consumer Law Center has rented space in various Boston buildings since its founding in 1970. The organization plans to complete its relocation by summer 2008. The project will result in the creation of six new jobs.

"It’s important to have organizations like the National Consumer Law Center available to provide expert legal resources and services," said Robert L. Culver, MassDevelopment president/CEO. "This low-cost financing will help NCLC establish permanent roots in the City of Boston."

The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) is the nation’s consumer law expert, helping consumers, their advocates, and public policy-makers use powerful and complex consumer laws on behalf of low-income and other vulnerable populations seeking economic justice. Legislators, policymakers, and administrators rely on NCLC’s legal and policy analysts for expert testimony, empirical research, and analysis to help predict and shape the effect of proposed statutes and policies on low-income consumers. NCLC promotes marketplace justice by providing expert issue identification, case assistance, legal research, and advocacy workshops for legal services and private attorneys, lay advocates, and community-based organizations representing low-income clients.

"Owning our own building will give us the long-term financial stability we need to ensure we can continue to provide high-quality, expert advice and legal advocacy on low-income consumer issues to our clients across the country," said Willard P. Ogburn, National Consumer Law Center executive director. "It was the teamwork and creative financing of Boston Private Bank & Trust Company, US Bank CDC and the Nonprofit Finance Fund that gave National Consumer Law Center the opportunity to meet our service goals by structuring this competitive financing package."

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development authority, works with businesses, financial institutions and local officials to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY 2007, MassDevelopment financed or managed 211 projects statewide representing the investment of more than $2 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are supporting the creation of more than 1,280 new housing units and more than 11,000 permanent or construction-related jobs.