608 BROADWAY
Lawrence, Massachusetts
A Portion of the Historic Marriner Mill
608 Broadway is Trinity Financial’s second project within the Gateway City of Lawrence, which has transformed roughly a quarter of the 450,000 square-foot Marriner Mill into 87 units of mixed-income rental housing. This $47 million adaptive reuse project has breathed new life into a historic asset, provided rental housing at three income tiers, and built upon the momentum generated by Trinity’s 102-unit Arlington Point project, which sits adjacent to 608 Broadway and was completed in 2019.
Originally constructed by the Arlington Mills Company in the 1890s for wool processing, the 608 Broadway building was acquired by the Malden Mills Company in the 1950s when it relocated its operations to Lawrence from its namesake of Malden, Massachusetts. Malden Mills was best known for inventing fleece (later trademarked as “Polartec”), a material that was revolutionary at the time of its introduction in 1981 because unlike wool, it is warm, fast-wicking, and lightweight.
The program for 608 Broadway includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units at up to 30%, 60% and 80% of area median income (AMI). Of the 87 units, 17 are restricted to lower-income households earning at or below 30 percent of AMI, 49 units are affordable to households earning at or below 60 percent of AMI, and 21 apartments are Workforce Housing units for households earning up to 80 percent of AMI.
The existing five-story 608 Broadway building was reused in its entirety, allowing the inclusion of elements that highlight the building’s original materials and structure. Trinity also installed a roughly 125-kilowatt solar panel system on the building’s roof to offset the project’s demand on the electrical grid.
Trinity assembled a mosaic of resources – 4% low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC), state LIHTC equity, and federal and state historic tax credits – to finance the bulk of the cost of redeveloping 608 Broadway. The balance of the funding package included a permanent mortgage and Workforce Housing funds from MassHousing, Affordable Housing Trust Fund and Housing Stabilization Funds from DHCD, and HOME funds from the city of Lawrence.
Type: Residential, Mixed-Income
Total development cost: $47 million
Units: 87
Completion Date: 2023