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Wainwright Bank & Trust Company has provided $3.5 million in financing to turn a former trash site into community treasure. The financing should help pull the project through its next stage of development. Union Place, in Somerville's Union Square, will be a mixed-use development on two acres of land.
The site formerly was a junkyard. But developer David Aposhian and Margo Grossberg, of Somerville Housing Group, were able to clean up the area and prepare it for construction without city, state or federal funds.
Eco-sensitive and energy-efficient materials and construction methods will be used to carry out the plan. The plan entails making 18 percent of the residential units affordable. Under the local zoning ordinance, only 10 percent of the units are required to be affordable.
Union Place was the first project to be approved under the city's revised Planned Unit Development ordinance. Officials say the new ordinance was key in the plan to revitalize Assembly Square.
Boston-based Wainwright Bank prides itself on being a socially responsible commercial bank. With $725 million in assets, about a third of the bank's commercial lending portfolio is dedicated to community development initiatives.
This is an example of how private and public entities can work together for the benefit of the greater community. Wainwright has a long history of seeking out these types of projects," said Henri Soucy, project lender and senior vice president of commercial real estate at Wainwright.
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