Unity Place Apartments
476-484 Moody Street, Lowell, MA 01854
The Coalition for a Better Acre (CBA) will redevelop a troubled pair of buildings as a 4-story elevator building, incorporating the latest in energy and water-conservation measures, resulting in the production of 23 new units of permanently affordable rental. Four of the units will have one bedroom; eleven of the units will have two bedrooms and eight of the units will have three bedrooms, with sixteen on-site parking spaces. The property is located on a quiet residential street with ample on-street parking, close to public transportation and within easy walking distance of the city center and numerous amenities. All of the units will be available to families earning less than 60% of area median income. Of those, six of the family-sized units will be made available as service-enriched permanent housing for extremely low income households transitioning from shelters. CBA is seeking eight (8) project based rental vouchers to facilitate deep affordability for these households.
The existing tenements at 476 and 484 Moody Street have passed through numerous ownerships and foreclosures through the years, finally culminating in foreclosure, condemnation, and a place on the City of Lowell’s “Troubled and Abandoned Property List.” Vacant and boarded up for over three years, the buildings were known as being a center for illegal activities and a blight on the neighborhood. When the owner went into foreclosure and a new owner assumed the properties through a deed in lieu of foreclosure, CBA seized upon the opportunity to purchase the properties so that they could finally be placed into responsible hands. CBA acquired the approximately 17,000 square foot parcel in May 2009 and has completed the demolition of the two existing and very blighted structures to make the site safe and secure for area residents while securing the balance of the funding commitments needed to close on its financing.
Redeveloping these parcels is part of a comprehensive redevelopment of the Upper Merrimack Neighborhood that CBA in partnership with private and public funders has undertaken over the past decade. The subject property is located across the street from CBA’s North Canal Apartments, a 267-unit complex that CBA transformed from “Concrete City” into a model of well-managed large-scale affordable housing. Also across the street is St. Joseph’s Apartments, a project financed primarily with low-income housing and historic tax credits, completed in Fall 2008, and a block away is CBA’s High School Apartments, a project slated to begin construction in 2010. CBA also has its offices in the former convent, adjacent to St. Joseph’s Apartments, renovated with Historic Tax Credits in 2002.
CBA’s long term investment in the neighborhood is paying off, as a private developer has recently acquired and rehabbed an adjacent a 12-unit property. Likewise, the shuttered Nuestra del Senora Church is under development redevelopment. Further investment is expected once the new University Avenue Bridge opens in 2010, which will redirect traffic onto Merrimack Street, a block away, providing the primary connection between UMass Lowell and the Downtown. Redeveloping the 476-484 Moody Street parcels will help protect the public investment made in the Neighborhood to date, as well as provide much-needed affordable housing for families and individuals.
Winslow Architect’s Project Rendering:
