| On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, Lawrence CommunityWorks (LCW) hosted a successful groundbreaking for the first phase of its future Island-Parkside development located at 20 Island Street in Lawrence at 12PM on Wednesday, December 1. Over 100 attendees gathered outdoors at the construction site, including Lawrence Mayor Brian DePena, Secretary Mike Kennealy of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, Undersecretary Jennifer Maddox of the Department of Housing and Community Development, and local officials and state representatives. Executive Director, Jessica Andors, and Board President, Rosa Pina, spoke to the audience about the transformative project before featuring speeches from Mayor DePena, Secretary Kennealy, Undersecretary Maddox, State Representative Marcos Devers, Roger Herzog of the Community Economic Development Assistance Fund (CEDAC), Mike Gondek of The Life Initiative, Michael Williams of NeighborWorks America, and Margaret Keaveny of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). The event concluded with final remarks from local attorney and LCW’s longest-standing Board member, Armand M. Hyatt, and a photo opportunity of the groundbreaking. The Island-Parkside project will be developed in two phases. Construction on Phase One is slated to be completed in the spring of 2023 and will provide 40 affordable and climate-resilient apartment homes for local families. When fully complete, both phases of the housing development will offer a total of 80 Passive House-certified sustainable rental units, in addition to a new Lawrence headquarters for SquashBusters youth programming, substantial green space and riverfront views, and improved public access to the existing Ellen Swallow Richards urban wild. Permanent project funding sources include the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) through federal and state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Affordable Housing Trust Funds, HOME Funds, Housing Innovation Funds, Housing Stabilization Funds, National Housing Trust Funds, Community Based Housing Funds, Facilities Consolidation Funds, and Accessible Affordable Housing Grant Funds; City of Lawrence; CEDAC, National Equity Fund, Inc. (NEF); Dorfman Capital; Capital One Bank; and Reading Cooperative Bank. Pre-development funders include The Chirag Foundation; Massachusetts Development Finance Agency; The Life Initiative; LISC; and NeighborWorks America. The project development team for Island-Parkside involves representatives from Anser Advisory, VIVA Consulting, Delphi Construction, Abacus Architects and Planners, Boehm Architecture, HighMark Land Design, The Engineering Corp., Inc. (TEC), H+O Structural Engineering, GTR Geotechnical, Norian Siani Engineering, Inc., New Ecology, Inc., Hastings Consulting, Klein Hornig, and Hyatt and Hyatt. |
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