Development Team

Owners/Developers
King’s Lynne Residents Council
Lynn, Massachusetts

Corcoran Mullins Jennison Inc.
Boston, Massachusetts
www.corcoranjennison.com

Architect
Claude Miquelle Architects
Stoneham, Massachusetts
www.mzogroup.com

Project Data

Website
www.cmjapts.com/
properties/kingslynne/html

Site Area
58 ac (23 ha)

Facilities
168 townhouses, 273 multifamily units
424 surface parking spaces

Land Uses
residential, recreation, parks/open space, surface parking

Start/Completion Dates
1976–1979

Jury Statement

King’s Lynne pioneered a mixed-income model for the conversion of public housing projects into private ownership—a model that eventually was implemented on a national scale as HUD’s HOPE VI program. The tenants association of the failing 408unit America Park partnered with a private developer to create a new template of private ownership and management, and more than a quarter of a century later, this 441-unit community remains a successful and vital one.

Awards for Excellence: 2007 Winner

King’s Lynne
Lynn, Massachusetts

In 1970, America Park was one of the worst public housing projects in Massachusetts. One-quarter of its 408 units were boarded up and condemned. The tenants, recognizing that the local housing authority was not able to properly manage the project or provide the services they needed, organized themselves through an elected residents council. Wanting to bypass the state housing authority, whose regulations were seen to have exacerbated conditions, the residents council refused public renovation funds.

Instead the tenants obtained grant money to hire a consultant, who came up with a plan to convert America Park into a privately owned and managed mixed-income community. Armed with the consultant’s findings, the tenants recruited a private developer and management company that they believed could deliver what the housing authority could not. Working with Corcoran Mullins Jennison Inc. (CMJ), they generated private and public support for the redevelopment effort that transformed America Park into King’s Lynne.

“King’s Lynne is a national model—America’s first public housing project to be converted to private mixed-income housing, and the nation’s first redevelopment effort in which the developer became a 50/50 partner with public housing residents,” notes Suzanne Corcoran, senior project director for CMJ. “Thirty years after completion, King’s Lynne has the same ownership, is fully leased, is in top condition, and is a financial success. The practices conceived at King’s Lynne still serve as the blueprint for the redevelopment of troubled public housing nationwide; King’s Lynne planted the seeds for HOPE VI, transforming public housing nationwide.”

The project’s long-term success is due in large part to the 50/50 partnership, the first of its kind, between CMJ (as developer and co-general partner) and the elected residents council, now known as the King’s Lynne Residents Council. At the time America Park was redeveloped, there was no model for such a partnership—nor any evidence that it would work—and all parties involved, including the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) and many local and state politicians, took significant risks by supporting the project. Although developers Joe Corcoran, Joe Mullins, and Gary Jennison all had grown up in working-class neighborhoods in Boston and understood the “melting pot” concept of mixed-income communities, they had no guarantee that recreating a new neighborhood like the ones in which they grew up would be possible. Would middle-class households really choose to buy and move in next door to low-income residents?

After much effort, legislation was passed that made the tenant/developer partnership possible. In addition to enabling its organizational and investment structure, the legislation required that a percentage of the project’s operating budget (now 3 percent) be allocated to on-site social service programs for residents. The redevelopment was funded through tax-exempt financing and a state rental housing subsidy, as well as through mortgage financing from the MHFA. State funding was provided for demolition, the relocation of residents during the construction process, and initial resident services.

Beginning in 1976, America Park’s garden-style buildings were demolished and replaced with 441 new units. Completed in 1979, King’s Lynne features 147 market-rate units, 147 units reserved for moderate-income households, and another 147 reserved for very low-income households. The units are distributed among two garden-style buildings, four mid-rise elevator buildings designed for elderly residents, and 168 townhouses. A new road system, which replaced America Park’s barrack-style grid, offers vistas of rolling lawns, abundant plantings, and long stretches of wooded areas. Amenities include a community clubhouse, tot lots, tennis courts, and two swimming pools.

CMJ’s involvement with King’s Lynne continues. It manages the community through a management subsidiary and maintains its 50 percent ownership, thus continuing to receive ongoing cash flow from the financially stable project. As CMJ’s co-general partner, the King’s Lynne Residents Council also receives a share of the annual cash flow. King’s Lynne is an early model of how public housing can be redeveloped as a private, mixed-income residential community. The lessons learned from this development process have been applied many times throughout the United States.