Mast Landing Senior Care Housing (Mast Landing) is an innovative approach to affordable senior living. This 58-unit building, located in Dover, New Hampshire, provides residents with a beautiful home and unbundled homecare services.
The new construction was completed in November 2015, and was fully leased up in May of 2016. NDC Corporate Equity Fund assisted in the completion of the project, in partnership with Housing Initiatives of New England Corporation (HINEC) and The New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority.
The City of Dover’s unique history is reflected in the architecture of the downtown community and former mill buildings along the Cochecho River. The growth of a brick industry spanned decades of successful mill operations through the middle of the 20th century. Dover’s revitalization as a thriving, competitive community continues today providing a backdrop of activities for residents, including exceptional parks, recreational services and senior center.
The Dover area is a sought after residential location, as documented by extensive media coverage of a housing shortage and in particular the affordable housing shortage throughout the State of New Hampshire. The City of Dover is viewed as a desirable location for senior residents because of the community support for the elderly population, the demand for elderly units in the area market exceeds supply. It is anticipated that by 2019 the number of individuals age 62+ years old will increase by 14.4% this is a significant demographic shift and points to the additional need for housing oriented to the senior market.
Mast Landing is located on the southwestern edge of Dover just northwest of Portsmouth, NH and 55 miles from Downtown Boston, MA. The location is well-suited for the senior population, it is located in a newly developing area, immediately across the street from a new Hannaford Supermarket and pharmacy and less than 2 miles from the downtown business district.
Mast Landing has created an innovative affordable senior living environment, the structure of the care community was built on the ideology that at the time of move-in not all residents have a need for extensive supportive services, but residents may need these services in the future. The supportive care services offered at Mast Landing are offered a la carte, this allows residents the option to sign up for supportive in home care at any time. Residents can obtain most of the services that are available at a supportive living facility. With an office located in the building, Abundant Blessings Homecare offers residents personal homecare services at an affordable rate. This new system of a la carte services allows seniors access to the services they need, when they need it, with the dignity they deserve.
Glendale Senior Dining serves daily meals in the dining room in a restaurant environment; providing residents, not only well-balanced healthy meals, but daily social interaction and a sense of community.
At the time of project underwriting and development, the State of New Hampshire placed a $450,000 cap on the tax credits that could be allocated to one project. This limitation left a substantial gap in financing and would have made the Mast Landing project infeasible. To generate more credits, the project developer, HINEC decided to split Mast Landing into two separate projects. This allowed the portion that could not be financed with the full 9% credits to qualify for tax-exempt bond financing and 4% credits. Ultimately, 32 units were financed with 9% LIHTC and 26 units were financed with 4% LIHTC. This still left the project with a substantial financing gap, for which HINEC could not secure financing from the state. HINEC decided to refinanced another project from their portfolio to generate capital to subsidize the Mast Landing Senior Care Center Project. HINEC invested all the refinance proceeds, deferred its developer fees and put $1.16 million of its own cash reserves into the development. Very few developers, for-profit or non-profit would pledge their own cash reserves to support the development of a project. HINEC is a mission driven organization, they saw a need for senior housing and did everything they could to make the project happen.