By Jeanette DeForge | jdeforge@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD – It turns out it takes a village to house a village.
Developers gathered Monday with state, federal and local officials, bankers and builders to celebrate the completion of the 52-apartment Residences at the Vault project on 310 State St. with tours and a ribbon-cutting.
“What we were able to do is leverage the federal tax credits and incentives alongside the state tax credits and incentives we created with the Affordable Homes Act and great things are happening,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “If you get good policies and you get people working together as a team, you can actually get stuff done.”
This is one of many projects across the state that have created more than 100,000 units of desperately needed housing in the past three years, she said.
Gordon Pulsifer, owner of First Resource Co., which has renovated multiple historic and often derelict buildings into affordable homes in the city, said the Vault is part of his ongoing Merrick project that is restoring four vacant buildings on the State Street corridor to create 122 homes.
Already, the company has completed a smaller restoration of 878 Worthington St. that has eight apartments. It is expecting to finish construction on the former school administration building at 195 State St. and the nearby 19-25 Maple St. into a total of 62 apartments around January, said Michael Pulsifer, vice president of the company.
Also along State Street is a second project being done by McCaffery Interests Inc. that will create 111 new apartments, which are mostly market rate, next to the Merrick project.
That plan calls for the renovation of the former Clock Tower building at the corner of State and Main, the attached building at 1163 Main St., the Colonial building at 1155 Main St. and a smaller building at 11-21 Stockbridge St.
Springfield has a rich history, but turning a century-old building like The Vault into apartments is more expensive than building new. U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal talked about how lawmakers in 2017 killed historic tax credits for a time, making preservation efforts more difficult.
“I decided (that) we are going to resume those tax credits and we are going to supply some oxygen to them,” Neal said. Congress eventually returned $60 million to the program that fills in funding gaps in projects like The Residences at the Vault.
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno cited a need to help companies “cover the delta” that allows the city to restore vacant and often derelict buildings into those that are providing housing, business space and tax revenue.
The city has contributed about $1.4 million for the Merrick project, with most of that coming from federal pandemic recovery and HOME funds awarded to the city.
“Wait until you see the transformation of the building,” Sarno said. “They were able to save the floors, the stairway areas, the tile, the marble, the vaults are in there, the doorknobs, central air.”
The Vault building was constructed in 1924 as the Federal Land Bank of Springfield. In 1975 it closed and the state Department of Transitional Assistance rented it for decades. The building was vacant for several years before First Resource purchased it.
Converting a building that was constructed to be exceptionally secure was no easy task. The concrete floors and walls are twice as thick as is typical, so it took work and expense to retrofit the building, Pulsifer said.
While adding modern kitchens and bathrooms, the company kept the marble entrance and staircases and even novel features, such as the vaults and even phone booths – minus the phones.
In coming weeks residents will be selected through a lottery and the first residents are expected to move in during September, he said.
A single person can earn no more than $59,000 a year and two people cannot earn more than $67,000. Monthly rents will range from $627 to $1,525, depending on the size of the apartment and the tenant’s income.
