Loan to Enable Immediate Ground-Breaking On Harvard-Backed Mission Park Housing

The way was cleared for immediate ground-breaking for the Mission Park Housing Project yesterday as the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency board voted unanimously to sell $39 million in guaranteed notes for construction of the Harvard-backed project.

The decision climaxes six years of negotiations between the University and the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard, a developer of the project, to build the 774-unit project.

The future of the housing project had recently come into doubt because the housing agency had only $63 million in state guaranteed notes to spend and $100 million in competing projects.

Priority

But the board decided that the project deserved higher priority. Construction can begin immediately.

William J. White, executive director of the housing agency who recommended last week that the project not receive funds, yesterday changed his position and requested that the board use available funds for the project.

White said yesterday after the meeting that it became necessary to change his position because he could not find any private funding for the project.

He said Harvard has lobbied for the favorable decision, but he added that all other projects vying for the agency's money also lobbied with the agency.

Donald C. Moulton, assistant vice president for community affairs and Harvard's coordinator for the project, said he is happy with the board's decision and credited the Roxbury tenants for its perserverance with the housing project.

He said yesterday that there will be a ceremonial groundbreaking at 5:30 p.m. Friday on the side, at the intersection of Vining St. and Fenwood Rd., near the Medical School in the Mission Hill section of Boston.

The first 100 units of housing will be finished within 11 months, he said.

Robert Parks, leader of the community-based Roxbury Tenants organization, said yesterday that the decision showed that a community and an institution can work together to acheive goals that are mutually beneficial.

Moulton said the housing project starts a "key development" that will provide more than $200 million in projects in the Medical School area including the planned $56-million Medical School total energy power plant.

The housing project will generate 1500 jobs, Moulton said. Minority contractors will receive $7-8 million in construction jobs on the housing, he said.

The housing project and the power plant together will produce more than $1.5 million in in-lieu of tax payments each year.

The power plant, which will supply steam cooling and chilled water to the housing project, has come under attack from some community groups in the area, but the Roxbury Tenants favored its construction.