QUINCY, MASS. — Construction is underway at The Watson, a 140-unit multifamily project on a 1.7-acre site at 116 East Howard Street in Quincy, adjacent to the former Fore River Shipyard. The project involves the demolition of a long-vacant former office building. DellBrook Construction is building the project, with completion slated for July 2018. Eighty-six of the 140 units at the Watson will be workforce housing units, affordable to middle-income households. The workforce housing units will be targeted to households earning at or below 110 percent of the Area Median Income, or $113,740 for a family of four. Twenty-eight of the units will be affordable to households earning at or below 50 percent of AMI, or $51,700 for a family of four. The remaining 26 apartments will be rented at market rates.
MassHousing is providing developers, the WinnCompanies and NeighborWorks, a $29.3 million permanent mortgage, $7 million in workforce housing financing from MassHousing’s Opportunity Fund, and $900,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which MassHousing manages on behalf of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The 86 workforce housing units at the Watson represent the largest number of workforce units for a single project financed through MassHousing’s $100 million Workforce Housing Initiative to date.
In addition to MassHousing financing, other sources for the $44 million project include allocations of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and Housing Development Incentive Program tax credits from DHCD, a $2 million affordable housing contribution from the City of Quincy, and financing from Citigroup.