City Council Approves Seed Money for Willow Park Affordable Housing Development
By Charlie Breitrose
"The first new public housing building in Watertown to be constructed in Watertown in decades took a significant step forward when the City Council approved spending Community Preservation Act funds on the project at Willow Park on Tuesday night.
The development will create 138 units on the site of 60 that currently has units. On Tuesday, the Council approved the Community Preservation Committee’s recommendation to spend $4 million in CPA funds on the project. Councilors also approved money to cover the cost of the restoration of historic paintings that hang in the lobby of City Hall.
Mark Kraczkiewicz, the chair of the Community Preservation Committee, said the approval of the funds represents a milestone for CPA in Watertown.
“The grant is, in fact, the largest expenditure of CPA funds in Watertown,” Kraczkiewicz said. “It takes place on a 2.2 acre site, and also includes the acquisition of a 0.1 acre house next door so they can expand the affordable housing community.”
Willow Park will be operated by Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), a group that owns and operates over 13,000 units around the country including 5,000 in Massachusetts. Cori Mian, POAH Vice President for Real Estate Development, said the Watertown Housing Authority will maintain the ground lease to the land, and is a 27.5 percent partner in longterm operations and in the entity that will control the project."...
..."Council Vice President Vincent Piccirilli noted that the City Council has put a priority in creating more affordable housing, and said it was important to provide the seed money. He added that having conditions to protect the City of Watertown and the taxpayers’ investment, and that having a self-sustaining development is good model.
“I am very pleased about the repositioning, as envisioned by Watertown Housing Authority and POAH, to provider more housing there, more modern housing with a range of affordable price points to make it work,” Piccirilli said. “I think that the future of building really successful affordable housing projects is to have enough revenue to pay to run the building.”'...