A $20.2 million affordable-housing development for seniors called The Meadows, in North Smithfield, has used a combination of construction funding that the developer and lenders say is a first for a Rhode Island project.
There are only a few developments in the country that have qualified for a combination of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 202 and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits along with a private-sector construction mortgage, said Jeanne Cola, senior vice president and director of community relations at Citizens Bank.
In this case, the 68,000-square-foot project was partially financed by the Housing Bank, a regional Citizens Bank program created in 2004 that aimed to offer $200 million in low-interest loans for construction of affordable and work force housing, Cola said.
The $1.75 million mortgage for The Meadows, developed by NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, has a 2.89-percent interest rate, according to Citizens.
“It was a program created to address the need for affordable housing in Rhode Island,” said Cola. “Healthy communities translate into healthy business opportunities for us and it’s always important to give back into the communities in which we do business.”
The program so far has either preserved or created 457 housing units in Rhode Island and more than 2,400 throughout New England. That’s double the program’s 1,200-unit goal, Cola said. Funding for the loans also exceeded the program’s goal by $27 million.
But it’s unclear whether the program will continue, she said.
“Because the market and the economy has somewhat changed, we’re really assessing what the needs are within our community,” Cola said. “We really hope to have something that fits those needs – it may look like the Housing Bank or it may look completely different.”
Along with that funding, The Meadows received a $525,000 grant from the Town of North Smithfield and the R.I. Housing Resources Commission’s Neighborhood Opportunities Program contributed $400,000. The Rhode Island Local Initiatives Support Corporation brokered $6.2 million in federal credits. Approximately $11 million in project costs are being financed privately.
In a statement supporting the project, Rhode Island Housing Executive Director Richard Godfrey said providing high-quality senior housing is a challenge in Rhode Island. “The challenges are exacerbated in a town such as North Smithfield,” he said, “in which the demand is so great that the local housing authority has the longest waiting list in northern Rhode Island.”
The one-building development sits on a one-acre parcel, has a central hub with four wings and is painted in bright, varying colors. The certificates of occupancy were issued by the state during early June and 70 of the 80 units have already been leased or have potential buyers who’ve been qualified by NeighborWorks, said Executive Director Joseph Garlick.
“There are a couple of other [senior developments] in town, but they don’t have elevators,” Garlick said. “And here, all the units are handicapped adaptable. That means that if someone has a knee operation – or something else – the unit can accommodate a wheelchair.”
The 72 one-bedroom units will be leased for $822 per month, or 90 percent of the town’s average of $862. The eight two-bedroom units will lease for $987 per month, or 94 percent of the town’s average, according to Rhode Island Housing’s 2007 statistics.
According to Citizens, the project also boosts the town’s affordable housing stock by 1.97 percent, bringing it within 1.5 percent of the state-mandated 10 percent.
“Construction started about a year-and-a-half ago and people are signing leases as we speak,” Garlick said. “Hopefully they can start moving in [this] week.” •
