Immune Disease Institute to Buy Lab Equipment With $1.3 Million MassDevelopment Lease

June 22, 2011

Contact:
Kelsey Abbruzzese, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086 & 617-448-9077

MassDevelopment has issued a $1.3 million tax-exempt lease on behalf of Immune Disease Institute, Inc. (IDI), a Boston nonprofit research institution known for discoveries that increase the body’s ability to fight disease and heal. IDI will use lease proceeds to purchase laboratory equipment. TD Equipment Finance, Inc. purchased the lease.

“This low-cost financing will help IDI continue its mission of improving health and strengthening the immune system,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “The Institute is a great example of the Commonwealth's innovation and healthcare economies in action, and we're proud to support its work.”

IDI is academically affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and its investigators hold medical-school appointments. The Institute also entered into an affiliation with Children's Hospital Boston through which IDI joined seven other interdisciplinary programs at the Hospital as the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

MassDevelopment’s tax-exempt leases act essentially as installment loans. An investor lends funds to the borrower to purchase equipment and complete any related renovations, and the borrower agrees to make periodic fixed-rate payments. Generally, the borrower leases the equipment for a length of time approximating the useful economic life of the equipment. At the end of the lease term, the borrower typically pays a nominal amount and assumes ownership of the equipment.

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2010, MassDevelopment financed or managed 238 projects in 104 communities across the state generating investment of nearly $1.4 billion in the Massachusetts economy.