Community Renewal Good Stories - Lowell

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Lowell, Massachusetts Renewal Community

A $1.8 million CRD Allocation Helps to Renovate an old Property and Create Jobs

The Department of HUD awarded 40 Renewal Community designations in 2001, one to a neighborhood in Lowell, Massachusetts, that had especially high levels of poverty and unemployment.  Businesses in Renewal Communities are eligible for special tax incentives worth more than $5 billion, including a commercial revitalization deduction (CRD) for constructing or rehabilitating commercial property.  The owners of 598 Broadway Street in Lowell received a CRD allocation worth more than $1.8 million, which allowed them to substantially rehabilitate the building and deduct the costs over just 10 years instead of the normal 39 years.

The building has undergone an amazing transformation.  Work began on the ground floor, which had been boarded up and closed in.  The owners opened it up with large windows, thereby returning the space to an active commercial use. This project is across the street from a major city investment, a new middle school that opened in the Fall of 2005.

One of the City of Lowell’s main goals for the Renewal Community is to increase local employment by providing tax incentives for business expansion. The project at 598 Broadway Street is a prime example of this expansion, resulting in a total private investment of over $2 million dollars, the rehabilitation of over 7,000 square feet of retail space, and the creation of approximately 10 new full-time jobs.

If you have any questions, please contact Theresa Park of the City of Lowell at 978-446-7200.