Mixed-use

Predevelopment Work Financed for ‘Nubian Square Ascends’

Nubian Square Ascends / Rendering courtesy of Nubian Ascends Partners, LLC

Boston – MassDevelopment has partnered with six organizations to provide loan financing to Nubian Ascends Partners, LLC for predevelopment work at Nubian Square Ascends, a planned mixed-use development located between Washington Street and Harrison Avenue in Nubian Square in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.

The lending partners – BlueHub Loan Fund, Local Enterprise Assistance Fund (LEAF), Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation (MHIC), The Life Insurance Community Investment Initiative, and The Property and Casualty Initiative (PCI) – provided a $3 million loan, which MassDevelopment enhanced with a guarantee.

The 185,000sf commercial building will include offices, life science labs, a training center, culinary center, retail marketplace, a 34,500sf cultural hall, an artists’ workspace, parking garage, and outdoor plaza. It will also include 15 homeownership units, of which 10 will be affordable.

“This project is being designed and developed by a talented and experienced team that is 100% people of color. Together they project to create 900 permanent jobs in a neighborhood where job creation has persistently and historically lagged other neighborhoods in Boston, by making Nubian Ascends a hub of science, academic and medical research,” said The Property and Casualty Initiative president, Michelle Volpe.

“Nubian Square Ascends marks the latest in a series of game-changing investments in Roxbury’s Nubian Square aimed at invigorating the local economy, and it’s terrific to see MassDevelopment help move the project forward by tapping into its partnerships with area lenders,” said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy, who serves as chair of MassDevelopment’s board of directors.