BOSTON — LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc., Pennrose, the City of Boston and other project partners have opened The Pryde, an LGBTQ-affirming affordable housing community for seniors in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
The project transformed the historic Rogers Middle School site into a vibrant community of 74 mixed-income rental homes.
The Pryde includes studio, one- and two-bedroom modern apartments available to households earning less than 30 percent to less than 100 percent of the area median income (AMI), or approximately $36,690 to $103,900 for a one-person household. Several apartments will be set aside for the formerly homeless and 60 percent of the units will give preference to current Boston residents at initial lease-up.
Hyde Park’s 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Company A, a 501(c)(3) reenactment organization, will have office and display space in the building. LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. will also provide onsite programming and supportive services to support aging in place.
Financing for The Pryde includes funding from the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Preservation Act; soft loans and state and federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs) from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities; State Historic Tax Credits from the Massachusetts Historical Commission; and Federal Historic Credits from the National Park Service.
TD Bank, facilitated through Redstone Equity, provided equity for all of the LIHTC funding, as well as construction financing. Massachusetts Housing Partnership is providing the permanent loan. Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. provided the loan for state LIHTC equity and state Historic Tax Credit equity.
The Community and Economic Development Assistance Corp. and MassHousing oversaw the commonwealth’s Community-Based Housing funding and Affordable Housing Trust Funds, respectively. Grants from Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Farnsworth Family Trust, Liberty Mutual, and LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. completed the financing.
The development team includes: Dimella Shaffer, architect; NEI, general contractor; Mikyoung Kim Design, landscape architect; Nitsch Engineering, civil/traffic engineer; PAL, historic consultant; DAC/Hillmann, environmental consultant; Thornton Tomasetti, sustainability consultant; Innova Services Corp., construction manager; and Klein Hornig, legal counsel. Pennrose Management Co. will operate the community.