The Urban Strategy America Fund Invests in 151-Unit Affordable Community

By Jessica Fiur, News Editor

Boston—The Urban Strategy America Fund, a fund at New Boston Fund Inc., along with Massachusetts Housing Partnership, has closed on the permanent financing for the third financial rental phase of Olmsted Green, a community in Boston. Olmsted Green was developed by New Boston Fund and Lena Park Community Development Corporation in a joint venture called Lena New Boston.

Olmsted Green currently features 151 affordable rental units, including 65 affordable units for seniors and 19 townhomes.

“Olmsted Green is true mixed income ‘village in the city,’” Kirk Sykes, president of the Urban Strategy America Fund, tells MHN. Modeled after Forest Hills Garden’s in New York, we have clustered all of the housing, both market rate and affordable, to maximize the public open space. Located at the geographic heart of Boston, Olmsted Green abuts the 400-acre Fredrick Law Olmsted Franklin Park and the 65-acre Audubon Boston Nature Center. Seldom is affordable and workforce housing located so close to urban open space and amenities, including a public golf course, zoo and miles of walking trails. Our partner, the Lena Park CDC, owns the community center and open space adjacent to the site that will soon include the Brooke Charter School. Also located on the site is the Hearth Elder Affordable Housing. Lastly, Olmsted Green is a bridge between the low and moderate-income areas of Mattapan, Dorchester and Roxbury, and the more affluent Jamaica Plain community. This project assures that Bostonians of all incomes and ages can enjoy the benefits of open space, transit, community centers and schools within five minutes of their homes.”

The community is located near the Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary and Franklin Park. Additionally Olmsted Green is close to the Forest Hill Station on the MBTA’s Orange Line.

Currently, $95 million was invested in the project, and of that $95 million, $83 million was used to create affordable units.

“The public private investment of the State, the City and Urban Strategy America Fund has leveraged almost $100 million of development,” Sykes says. “We have leveraged our equity investment through partnership with these public entities. Their vision to allocate public land in exchange for community benefits has benefited our investors and the City and State’s residents alike.”