Ruggles

Affordable

Assisted

Living

Boston,       Massachusetts

Introduction

The Developers New Communities Services New Atlantic Development Committee to End Elder Homelessness

The Residents

The Member

Audio Tour

The Numbers

The Member

Pamela Feingold is senior vice president / community development lending at the Wainwright Bank & Trust Company.

The Bank first got involved in the Ruggles Assisted Living facility through the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, which is providing the supportive services. They're also one of the partners of the project along with New Communities Services, which came in to apply for a Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant. We agreed to underwrite the grant for $250,000.

The dining room at Ruggles Affordable Assisted Living.

When we were looking at the deal we saw that the tax credits hadn't been syndicated or purchased by anyone yet. We liked the plan so much that we decided to purchase the tax credits for the deal. We agreed to put in $3.5 million in tax-credit equity into the project.

We were working on this project for probably two years, first through applying for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston grant and then through the tax-credit-equity component.

Ruggles Assisted Living was the first assisted-living project in Boston that was 100-percent affordable. We've financed two other projects of the Committee to End Elder Homelessness and have had a great relationship with them. The combination of the uniqueness of the project and the sponsor led us to be excited about the deal.

In this particular project, there was a gap of $250,000. The developers were also putting in some money, but we were still short by about $250,000.

So we had that gap that we just couldn't fill. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston was perfect; it allowed us to close the deal and get all the financing sources. Because it was a tax-credit deal, it had to be placed in service by the end of December 2001. So we were under the gun to find the money last year and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston allowed us to do that.

My involvement in the development was two-fold: I was there to underwrite the AHP grant and provide support as a member bank; and I also recommended that the Bank purchase the tax credits.

It's important to start the AHP process early by working with your member bank. Even if you don't have all your sources of financing lined up and think it may be too early to apply for a Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston grant, it's worthwhile to sit down with a member bank that has been through it before. They can walk you through what you need to know, where you may be able to score points, and what you may need to work on. I can't emphasize enough that it's important to start early in the process.

The Member
We are close to a $500 million community-development bank located primarily in Boston and Cambridge, Watertown and Somerville. We have nine branches and a mission of socially responsible lending. We're extremely committed to the community in Greater Boston. Our community-development loans have supported housing for the homeless and people with mental illness, environmental concerns, and breast cancer research. We have a real community-development focus.

We have a top-down-driven mission statement. Our two cochairman are extremely involved in the community on a personal as well as a professional level. That's how the bank's mission was created. Bob Glassman, our co-chairman, has a personal philanthropic agenda, which he has carried forward through the bank.

The bank opened its doors in 1987, so we're really not that old. We're a full-service commercial bank, but our niche is really community development.

We've been a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston for years. In addition to using the AHP program, we have also funded many loans with Community Development advances. We've also dabbled a little in 40B projects. We've really relied very very heavily on the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. It's been a great partnership.

A Unique Initiative
Ruggles Assisted Living was unique because of the number of sources of financing. It took a long time to put this initiative together because the project is 100 percent affordable. It couldn't support any real debt, so we had to be creative.

It took a couple of years to put this project together. We had to start early putting the pieces together. But the result is a project with no permanent debt and a ton of community support. It's also supporting 43 low-income elders, 18 of whom would have been homeless. It's a beautiful building on Ruggles Street now.