MassDevelopment

MassDevelopment Lease Helps MASCO Purchase New Shuttle Buses for Boston Hospitals, Colleges


July 30, 2013


Contacts:
Kelsey Abbruzzese, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086 & 617-448-9077 (cell)
Christine Fennelly, MASCO, 617-632-2748

MassDevelopment has issued a $13,480,059 tax-exempt lease on behalf of Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization (MASCO), a nonprofit serving workers, students, and patients in Boston’s Longwood medical area. The organization will use lease proceeds to buy passenger buses and vans for its shuttle services for MASCO member employees and students. The shuttles run to and from MBTA stations, between Harvard University’s Cambridge and Longwood campuses, and to and from off-site parking. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank purchased the lease.

“With this flexible, equipment-specific financing, MASCO can improve transit services for employees and students of this economic and educational hub in Boston,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “We are pleased to help MASCO provide efficient and economical transportation – an essential service in this area – to its members.”

MASCO offers its members a wide range of services, including area planning and development; parking and transportation; collaborative purchasing; telecommunications; and child care. MASCO’s members include Longwood area hospitals, such as Brigham and Women’s and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and local colleges such as Harvard University Medical School, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. MASCO members employ more than 46,000 people and generate an average of 1,100 new jobs and 7,700 job openings each year.

“MASCO is committed to providing safe, comfortable and timely transportation to our riders, who represent 14 medical and academic institutions in the Longwood area,” said Marilyn-Swartz-Lloyd, President and CEO of MASCO. “They are hard-working, mission-driven employees, and with the help of MassDevelopment, we are looking forward to giving our riders the very best in transportation,” she said.

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 FY2012, MassDevelopment financed or managed 280 projects generating investment of more than $2.3 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create more than 12,000 jobs and build or rehabilitate 900 residential units.