MassDevelopment

Capstone Communities, Hope Real Estate Enterprises to Transform Vacant Kendall Square Lot into Affordable Housing with MassDevelopment Bond


September 2, 2015


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: 
Kelsey Abbruzzese, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086 & 617-448-9077 (cell)
kabbruzzese@massdevelopment.com

Jason Korb, Capstone Communities LLC, 617-513-6320
jkorb@capstonecommunities.com

MassDevelopment has issued a $4.9 million tax-exempt bond on behalf of Port Landing Tenant LLC, a joint venture of Cambridge-based developers Capstone Communities LLC and Hope Real Estate Enterprises LLC. The organizations will use bond proceeds to build, furnish, and equip a 31,100-square-foot, 20-unit affordable housing development on a vacant parcel near Kendall Square in Cambridge. The development, to be called Port Landing, will contain four one-bedroom units, 13 two-bedroom units, and three three-bedroom units. Capstone Communities will rent eighteen units to households earning no more than 60 percent of area median income and rent two units to households earning no more than 30 percent of area median income. Capstone Communities expects that the project will support 36 construction jobs. In addition to the tax-exempt bond, MassDevelopment assisted the Department of Housing and Community Development with the approval of federal low-income housing tax credits, which provided roughly $3.5 million in equity. Cambridge Trust Company purchased the bond.

“By transforming a vacant parcel into affordable housing, Capstone Communities and Hope Real Estate Enterprises is embracing the creative, hardworking, and innovative spirit of Kendall Square,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “Cambridge desperately needs more affordable housing, so MassDevelopment proudly supports the Port Landing development.”

MassDevelopment also provided an $86,782 Brownfields Redevelopment Fund loan to assess contamination, helping Capstone Communities create a disposal plan in advance of construction. In addition, MassDevelopment provided a $10,500 predevelopment loan for geotechnical engineering services to assess foundation and design concepts for the housing development. The City of Cambridge also provided $3.5 million in loans for the project.

Jason Korb, Principal of Capstone Communities LLC and Sean D. Hope, Principal of Hope Real Estate Enterprises LLC added, “We are proud and honored to begin construction on Port Landing, an incredibly important building that will house hard-working families and individuals in the heart of Kendall Square/Area 4.  Port Landing is the only new construction, 100-percent affordable development to break ground in Cambridge in 2015. MassDevelopment has supported us since the project’s conception by providing multiple predevelopment financing sources and by issuing the development’s tax-exempt bonds. We are thrilled to have MassDevelopment as a resource and partner as we create desperately needed affordable housing in one of the Commonwealth’s and country’s most expensive housing markets.”

Capstone Communities develops market-rate, mixed-income, affordable, and historic apartment communities. In 2013, MassDevelopment issued a bond on behalf of Capstone Communities to transform a historic Brockton industrial building into Station Lofts, a 25-unit transit-oriented apartment complex. 

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2014, MassDevelopment financed or managed 314 projects generating investment of more than $2.9 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create more than 6,300 jobs and build or rehabilitate more than 1,600 residential units.