Opening of the Loop at Mattapan Station Celebrated

Mayor Michelle Wu, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll,  the Preservation of Affordable Housing  (POAH), Nuestra Comunidad, MassHousing, and residents today celebrated the Grand Opening of the Loop at Mattapan Station. The Loop at Mattapan Station is a new transit-oriented 135-unit affordable mixed-use housing community in Mattapan Square. Mayor Wu also celebrated the opening of Daily Table in the Loop building, a community grocery store with a mission to provide nutritious, delicious food more affordably than other supermarkets. The Loop at Mattapan Station was developed on a vacant and underutilized MBTA parking lot adjacent to the Mattapan trolley line station. 

“The Loop at Mattapan Station demonstrates what is possible when we work together across sectors to create more affordable housing for working families and build more connected neighborhoods,” said Mayor Michelle Wu.  “We have transformed this formerly underutilized asphalt lot into a mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented development with 135 beautiful new rental homes that will connect residents to economic opportunity for many years to come.”

The Loop at Mattapan Station builds on Mayor Wu’s commitment to create affordable housing and expand access to public transportation across Boston’s neighborhoods. The Loop at Mattapan Station created 135 units of housing next to an MBTA bus stop, the Mattapan Trolley stop, and a block from the Mattapan Commuter Rail Station. It is affordable to a range of incomes, with almost half of the units affordable to families making $70,100 or less. The income-restricted units and 10,000 square feet of first-floor retail space in this six-story building were built using the latest passive house energy efficiency standards. The Loop also boasts a gym, community rooms, a basketball court, a roof deck, a bike room, and an E-bike station. The development’s proximity to the Neponset River Greenway allows access to an important green space and community amenity.

“We are eager to champion more projects like The Loop at Mattapan Station across Massachusetts, where public-private partnerships leverage state, federal, and local resources and produce transformative results on state-owned, underutilized sites,” said Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll. “There are opportunities in every region, and we are ready to invest. Our state has the tools with MassWorks, affordable housing tax credits, housing vouchers, planning grants, environmental remediation, and many more resources to jumpstart development. Congratulations to the MBTA, POAH, Nuestra Comunidad and the many other partners in making this project a reality.”

The retail and commercial spaces complement the existing business community and will attract new merchants and patrons to the Mattapan Square neighborhood. The first tenant, Daily Table, is a nonprofit grocery chain dedicated to providing fresh, tasty, convenient and nutritious food to communities most in need at prices everyone can afford. By partnering with a network of growers, manufacturers, and other suppliers, they source high-quality food at low costs and make it available to everyone. They believe in creating livable wage jobs, with a strong preference for hiring directly from the neighborhoods they operate in. 

“With food insecurity rates and inflation at or near an all-time high, access to affordable nutrition for all is more important than ever," said Doug Rauch, Daily Table Founder, and President. “We are thrilled to have opened our fourth location here in Mattapan, where we will continue to deliver on our mission to provide freshly prepared meals, a broad selection of fresh fruits, veggies, meats and seafood, and grocery staples all at prices that are truly affordable for any budget and SNAP eligible.”

"I am pleased to celebrate the opening of The Loop at Mattapan Station, a remarkable transit-oriented development that exemplifies the City’s vision for more affordable and sustainable housing in Boston,” said Sheila Dillon, Chief of Housing. “The Loop's housing, located next to multiple transportation options, provides a crucial link between housing, transit, and economic opportunities. The building's passive house energy efficiency standards, along with its amenities such as a gym, community rooms, and bike room, make it a model for sustainable and healthy development."

The Loop at Mattapan Station will contain six studio apartments, 38 one-bedroom apartments, 81 two-bedroom apartments, and 10 three-bedroom apartments. Eighteen apartments will be restricted to very low-income households earning at or below 30 percent of the area median income (AMI) and those units will be supported by project-based vouchers through both the federal Section 8 and the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Programs (MRVP). There will be forty-seven apartments restricted to households earning at or below 50 percent of AMI, twenty-eight apartments restricted to households earning at or below 60 percent of AMI, and forty-two apartments restricted to households earning at or below 80 percent of AMI.  

“The Loop at Mattapan Station exemplifies the mission-driven work of MassHousing and all of our partners in creating affordable housing for working families and building stronger communities,” said Chrystal Kornegay, MassHousing Executive Director. “We are pleased to join POAH, the Commonwealth, and the City of Boston in celebrating the transformation of an underutilized parking lot into 135 new rental homes that will connect residents to economic opportunity for many years to come.” 

“We are thrilled to welcome 135 low and moderate income households to The Loop at Mattapan Station,” said Aaron Gornstein, President and CEO of POAH.  “These residents will also benefit from energy efficient apartments, recreational opportunities, public transit, and a new grocery store.  We greatly appreciate the support of all our partners, funders, and neighborhood residents who helped make this happen.”

The Loop at Mattapan Station was made possible in part by $3 million from the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Housing,  $39.3 million in tax credit equity from an allocation of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), allocated by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). DHCD also provided $5.35 million in direct support for the project. The project also benefited from $1.8 million in public infrastructure funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and $540,000 in passive house funding from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. Bank of America provided construction financing and is the tax credit equity investor. 

 "Nuestra Comunidad is excited and proud to witness the fruits of our years-long labor and partnership with POAH,” said N. Paul TonThat, Nuestra Comunidad’s Executive Director. “Nuestra is confident that the "Loop" will significantly benefit the greater Mattapan community by providing transit oriented affordable housing opportunities and neighborhood centric retail."

MassHousing also provided $36.5 million in affordable housing financing for the Loop, including $17.4 million in permanent financing, $16.1 million in tax-exempt bridge financing, and $3 million from the Agency’s Workforce Housing Initiative.

In FY23, Mayor Wu invested $380 million in housing affordability through the City’s Operating budget, the Capital budget, and federal recovery funds. The $200 million Mayor Wu committed in ARPA funds to invest in housing includes $60 million for affordable homeownership development and financial assistance to first-generation homebuyers, $57M for strategic acquisitions to combat displacement and create deeply-affordable development on City-owned land, $20M for a nation-leading pilot for energy retrofits in triple-deckers and other multifamily homes while maintaining affordability, $20M to develop new permanent supportive housing with specialized services for people with substance use disorder, $16M to maintain low-threshold shelter sites in response to the Mass-Cass humanitarian crisis, and $33M for upgrades to Boston Housing Authority properties. 

Mayor Wu’s initiatives to address Boston’s housing affordability issues also include filing a Home Rule Petition relative to rent stabilization, real estate transfer fees and senior property tax relief, signing an Executive Order relative to affirmatively furthering fair housing, and launching an action plan to best utilize the City-owned land called Welcome Home, Boston.