Putting the pieces together
In sports, the term “Triple Crown” is synonymous with excellence. In horse racing, it’s winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. In baseball, it’s when a player leads the league in average, home runs, and runs batted in.
In Massachusetts, if affordable housing had a Triple Crown, McElwain School Apartments in Bridgewater would be a worthy winner because it involved preserving a historic building, creating open space, and adding 57 mixed-income apartments.
How this excellence was achieved involves a combination of ingredients that included underutilized public land, local support, and two up-and-coming developers who teamed up for the first time to help the town achieve its goal of making a beloved old school useful again.
This story begins in downtown Brockton in 2010. It was here that developers Mathieu Zahler and Jason Korb got to know each other. Zahler was working for Trinity Financial on a development called the Enterprise Center. Korb had just left Beacon Communities to go out on his own and was turning an old downtown sporting goods factory into a mixed-income development called Station Lofts (MHP helped finance both projects).
Making the case in Bridgewater
A few years later, Zahler went out on his own. In 2017 he teamed up with Korb to answer Bridgewater’s request for proposals to redevelop the McElwain School, which had been largely vacant for 20 years. Their proposal to build 50 mixed-income units was accepted in 2017 but it would be a stretch to say their plan was a slam dunk, as they were the only bidders in a one-horse race.
A further reality check came from Town Manager Michael Dutton, who said they would have to convince town officials, boards, and residents how building affordable housing could bring a cherished landmark back to life. For the next year, they heeded Dutton’s encouragement and advice, explaining their plan and seeking input at town council meetings, finance committee meetings, community preservation meetings, business organizations, and local forums at the library and even a local daycare center.
Besides convincing the town, Zahler and Korb achieved two other things while working together to get their plan off the ground. First, they developed a working philosophy during their long days and nights planning the development and talking to the community. “Jason and I believe that we’d never want to build something that we wouldn’t want to live in ourselves,” said Zahler.
Second, enroute to a community meeting one night, Korb saw a for sale sign on a single-family home next to the school. He called Zahler immediately and knew they had to buy it. “The home is nice, Greek Revival style, but the added benefit was the land behind it added an acre to our site,” said Korb. “The land connected the whole site. We were able to add parking, build more units and have plenty of room for a new public playground and dog park.”
In 2023, after six years of hard work, Zahler and Korb joined state and local officials to cut the ribbon. And in a final nod to the town’s history, festivities included the unveiling of a metal sculpture of a flying shoe in honor of both William H. McElwain, a shoe manufacturer and one of the town’s major employers at the turn of the 20th century, and the school’s importance to the community.
Rate discount for Passive House
The 57 apartments are spread out over three buildings – three in the renovated home, 16 in the school and 38 in a new energy-efficient building behind the school. Together, they offer 13 one-, 36- two, and 8 three-bedroom apartments. Six are market rate and 51 are affordable to households making no more than 60 percent of area median income. The new building also includes a large community room that is available for public use.
McElwain School was financed with a combination of public and private funds, including low-income housing and historic tax credits awarded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Town of Bridgewater supported the project with $1.3 million in Community Preservation Act Funds and multifamily zoning through its approval of a Ch. 40B comprehensive land use permit.
MHP supported the development with a $5.6 million loan through its Green Building Certification Program, which provides incentives and interest rate discounts for affordable housing developments that achieve industry-recognized certifications for significant energy reductions.
McElwain School Apartments has achieved Passive House certification and has earned a 30-basis point interest rate discount on its MHP loan. This means that in addition to achieving historic preservation, open space, and affordable housing, McElwain School is also noteworthy for its energy efficiency.
In other words, in addition achieving housing’s figurative Triple Crown, Korb, Zahler and Bridgewater also hit a grand slam.
McElwain School Apartments has achieved Passive House certification and has earned a 30-basis point interest rate discount on its MHP loan.