Trinity Financial has secured financing to redevelop the former Worcester County Courthouse into 117 mixed-income apartments in downtown Worcester, Mass.
The courthouse building, which was built in 1845 and vacant since 2007, will be a major component of the larger revitalization of Worcester’s historic Lincoln Square district.
MassHousing is providing Trinity Financial with a $12.2 million tax-exempt permanent loan, $19.1 million in bridge loan financing, and $4.5 million in funding from the agency’s $100 million Workforce Housing Initiative.
“The transformation of the vacant former Worcester Courthouse into a new, inclusive housing community will be a major building block in downtown Worcester’s renaissance,” said MassHousing executive director Chrystal Kornegay in a statement. “Trinity Financial had a compelling vision for this property, transforming an historic structure into new homes for families of all means, from extremely low-income families to workforce housing and market-rate households.”
The Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has committed state and federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) to the redevelopment, which will generate $20.9 million in equity financing for the project. Other financing includes $10.7 million in federal historic tax credit equity, $2.9 million in state historic tax credit equity, $6 million in direct support from DHCD, and a $1.7 million deferred developer fee. The Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp. is the tax credit syndicator.
Trinity Financial plans to utilize federal LIHTC income-averaging authority to create a broader range of affordability than would have otherwise been possible. Thirteen units will serve extremely low-income households, with subsidy from project-based Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program vouchers. Thirty-seven units will be affordable to low-income households at or below 60% of the area median income (AMI), and 16 apartments will be affordable to households earning at or below 80% of the AMI. The courthouse redevelopment will also include 45 workforce housing units, which will be affordable to households earning at or below 110% of the AMI, and six market-rate apartments. The AMI in Worcester is $97,700 for a family of four.
The Worcester Courthouse is adjacent to the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester Memorial Auditorium, and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Services. The property also has access to public bus service and is less than a mile from the MBTA Commuter Rail at Union Station.
The general contractor is Tocci Building Corp. The architect is The Architectural Team, and the management agent is Trinity Management.
The project advances the Baker-Polito administration’s goal of creating up to 1,000 new workforce housing units affordable to middle-income households through the MassHousing Workforce Housing Initiative. Since the inception of the initiative in 2016, MassHousing has committed or closed workforce housing financing totaling $71.5 million to 31 projects, located in 16 cities and towns. To date, the Workforce Housing Initiative has advanced the development of 3,102 housing units across a range of incomes, including 797 workforce housing units.
