BOSTON — MassDevelopment has issued a $26 million tax-exempt bond on behalf of Harrison Affordable LLC, an affiliate of Beacon Communities and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England (CCBA), which will use proceeds to build an 85-unit affordable rental housing community at 288 Harrison Ave. in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood. The building, dubbed 288 Harrison Residences, will be constructed on what is currently a surface parking lot serving the Tai Tung Village affordable housing community, also owned by CCBA. The organization chose Beacon Communities as its development partner in 2019. Construction started in December 2022 and will be complete in fall 2024. Citizens purchased the bond, which helped the developers achieve a lower cost of capital.
The project will consist of 30 one-bedroom units, 40 two-bedroom units and 15 three-bedroom units. Twenty-two units will be reserved for households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), which would be capped at $111,850 for a four-person household. Eighteen units will be reserved for households earning up to 60 percent of AMI, or $84,120 for a four-person household. Twenty-eight units will reserved for households earning up to 50 percent of AMI or $70,100 for a four-person household, and 17 units will be reserved for families earning up to 30 percent of AMI, which comes out to $42,060 for a four-person household.
In addition to the tax-exempt bond, MassDevelopment assisted the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development with the approval of federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits that will provide approximately $22.7 million in equity for the project. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England is a 501(c)(3) organization established in 1923.