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58 Boyd St. was a partnership between the Portland Housing Authority, Avesta and Evernorth.
Updated: July 6, 2023
Evernorth’s $54M affordable housing fund will invest in five projects in Maine
Evernorth
An Evernorth fund invested $3.6 million in the Raise-Op Housing Cooperative, an 18-unit housing complex in Lewiston.
In keeping with its mission to advance the development of affordable housing in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, Evernorth, a nonprofit based in Portland and Burlington, closed a multi-investor fund of $54 million that will provide equity to finance affordable housing in the three states.
Evernorth is a housing capital syndicate formed when Northern New England Housing Investment Fund merged with Housing Vermont in 2020.
Over 30 years, the two entities were behind construction of 13,000 homes for low and moderate-income residents of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and raised more than $1 billion in equity.
Evernorth’s latest round — Housing New England, Fund IV — has 14 investors who committed a total of $54.05 million in equity, making the fund a significant financial resource for the region's critical affordable housing needs.
The investors include community, regional and national banks as well as one of the nation’s largest mortgage banking organizations.
“We raised raised capital from a wide-range of investors and new partners enabling us to expand our reach to preserve and create much-needed affordable housing in these unprecedented times,” said Evernorth’s co-president, Nancy Owens.
The fund will invest in 10 total developments, with five in Maine, two in New Hampshire and three in Vermont, creating 419 affordable apartments.
Here are the five projects in Maine, including developer, number of units and amount invested by Evernorth's Housing New England, IV fund.
- 155 Danforth, Portland. Developer: Developers Collaborative. 30 units. $3.67 million
- Raise-Op Housing Cooperative, Lewiston. Developer: Raise-Op Housing Cooperative. 18 units. $3.56 million
- Jocelyn Place, Scarborough. Developer: South Portland Housing Authority 60 units. $8.8 million
- Davis Road, Bangor. Developers: Bangor Housing Authority / Bangor Housing Development Corp. 32 units. $2.64 million
- Harrison Ridge, Bridgton. Developer: Developers Collaborative. 48 units. $4.27 million.
$1 billion in capital
Evernorth has raised and deployed more than $1 billion in equity capital for affordable housing and built more than 15,000 affordable homes for low- and moderate-income people across northern New England.
For instance, Evernorth is working with Avesta Housing to rehab 13 Emerson St. into 39 residential units, to be known as Munjoy Commons. With Avesta and Portland Housing Authority, it created 58 apartments at 58 Boyd St.
Also in Portland, projects Evernorth has been involved with include Freedom Place, a women's recovery home at 66 State St.
Earlier work (as Northern New England Housing Investment Fund) focused on development of affordable housing projects such as the Mildred Fox School apartments in South Paris, the renovation of Hodgkins School into senior housing in Augusta, the new-construction 62 Spring St. multi-use building in Auburn, the Motherhouse project in Portland, Larrabee Commons in Westbrook.
File photo
The former Hodgkins School in Augusta was renovated into housing.
How it works
Evernorth raises equity by syndicating federal and state tax credits covering low-income housing, affordable housing and historic structures.
PHOTO / TIM GREENWAY
Bill Shanahan, co-president of Evernorth
“In addition to a reliable return on their investments, the community banks and the regional and national companies that have invested with the Housing New England, Fund III will help to build or renovate tangible, long-lasting affordable housing resources throughout northern New England,” said Evernorth’s co-president Bill Shanahan.
All of the projects that are receiving funding from Housing New England, Fund IV, have been identified, and nine are under construction.
The first new homes will be available in Bristol, Vt., in August.
Evernorth has a pipeline of additional community developments that need financing and so will be unveiling another investment fund — Housing New England, Fund V — this summer.
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