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"Boston War Zone Becomes Public Housing Dream"
—The New York Times (November 23, 1991)

That headlined the Times article describing the transformation of the notorious Columbia Point Apartments project into the development now known as Harbor Point, in the shadow of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.  As the Times noted, conditions were so bad in this neighborhood—on a peninsula jutting into Boston harbor—that firefighters and ambulance drivers would not enter it without a police escort.

The site was turned over to private developers in 1986 and reopened in 1988, with a total of 1,283 low-income and market rate housing units [400 of the units were set aside for residents who receive rental subsidies]. The Times described it as a “sprawl of manicured lawns surrounding tennis courts, town houses and mid-rise apartment buildings where residents represent a broad range of races, ethnic backgrounds and incomes. Harbor Point is the nation’s first effort to transform a large Federal project by recruiting middle—and higher—income residents.”

Unfortunately, the financial viability of Harbor Point was threatened almost immediately by a steep decline in the Boston rental housing market. In order to attract affluent renters, management had to slash market-rate rents by up to 35%. The Times reported that, “Deficits and costly loans finally pushed Harbor Point close to bankruptcy” in the summer of 1991.

At this point, Atlantic Capital Corporation entered the picture. With the cooperation of the key developer and manager, Corcoran Mullins Jennison, Inc., Atlantic Capital was able to develop a “bailout” package for Harbor Point. The key ingredient to saving this development was a commitment from Atlantic client Chevron Texaco Corp. to invest $34 million in exchange for some $38 million in low-income tax credits and depreciation.

It is good to see that, over 10 years later, Harbor Point is still thriving and living up to the urban development vision that Corcoran Mullins Jennison and their co-developers had for it from the beginning. Harbor Point is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence, the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, and the FIABCI Award for International Excellence.

Then...

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