Burlington Community Land Trust named Housing Heroes Award recipient

Citizens Bank Foundation to provide $50,000 recognizing BLCT’s City’s Edge as innovative affordable housing developments

BURLINGTON, VT. – Citizens Bank Vermont has named Burlington Community Land Trust as the recipient of its 2006 Housing Heroes Award. As part of the award, BCLT will receive a $50,000 grant from the Citizens Bank Foundation, and the opportunity to tap into the expertise of Citizens Bank’s CEO through the “President to President” program. The Housing Heroes grant program is an extension of the Citizens Housing Bank, a low-interest loan program designed to increase the affordable housing supply in the state.

“We are thrilled to name BLCT as the first recipient of the Citizens Bank’s Housing Hero Award for the City’s Edge development in South Burlington,” said Jim Keyes, Vermont President of Citizens Bank. “Citizens Bank recognizes the critical need for affordable housing in the state and we are pleased to celebrate the impact that non-profit developers, such as BCLT, are making in the lives of Vermont residents.”

The Housing Heroes award was designed to spotlight housing development that demonstrate innovative solutions, effective use of resources, leadership in creating affordable housing and strong fiscal responsibility.

BCLT was selected as the Housing Hero because of its excellence in developing affordable housing. During its 22-year history, BCLT has created nearly 900 permanently affordable homes throughout northwestern Vermont. City’s Edge is its newest development in South Burlington. City’s Edge contains 60 condominium flats in one building that is part of a larger mixed-use development off Shelburne Road. Thirty-one of the new condos will remain perpetually affordable through the Land Trust.

The new homes were developed through a public-private partnership between BCLT, the City of South Burlington and the development corporation that owned the land, Farrell & Morrissey Development Corp. Several funding partners, including the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, combined to make the project a success.

City’s Edge incorporates several special features in its design including:

• The distinction of being the largest new construction of a multi-family development in Vermont. BCLT’s participation in City’s Edge enabled the developer to establish the first intentional, new mixed-income and mixed-tenure neighborhood in Vermont with non-profit and public participation.

• The presence of affordable ownership opportunities adjacent to affordable rental housing achieved one of BCLT’s goals to provide a “ladder of tenure” to families with lower incomes.

• In creating this development, City’s Edge contains dense, vibrant mix of commercial and professional offices, with easy access to major employers along the Interstate 89 corridor. A recreation path runs directly through the new neighborhood. Directly across the road in the rear of the development, a walking path leads to a conserved wooded area with walking paths.

• One of the development’s greatest successes is that the sales price of the condominiums had a statistical impact on the statewide median price of newly constructed home ownership units in 2005.

As part of the $50,000 grant form the Citizens Bank Foundation, $10,000 is designated for a resident-related program. BCLT will use these funds to implement the Farrell Street Residents Association. The resident committee would organize activities, such as barbeques, green up days, kids’ activities and a neighborhood newsletter or bulletin.

“We are honored to be recognized by Citizens Bank as a Housing Hero,” said Brenda Torpy, Executive Director of BCLT. “We will use the resources that this award brings to further our goal of developing new affordable homeownership opportunities for low-income families. We are grateful to Citizens Bank for this recognition and for its efforts to support and promote affordable housing throughout Vermont.”

The Housing Heroes grant program, in an effort to recognize a successful project that has created affordable housing units in the state, was available to any non-profit developer who has completed an affordable housing project in the past two years.

The Citizens Housing Bank Community Loan Program, a $200 million loan commitment, was designed to address this need by providing non-profit developers with the low-cost funding they need to create a new supply of affordable housing units for rental or homeownership and increase neighborhood stability through new homeownership opportunities. Up to 1,200 units are expected to be created directly from the program.

For more information about the Housing Heroes Program, visit www.citizensbank.com .

About Citizens Bank, N.A

Citizens Bank, N.A. has $16 billion in assets, and more than 230 branches and 260 ATMs throughout upstate New York and Vermont. In Vermont, it has 27 branches and 26 ATMs.

Citizens Bank, N.A. is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $155 billion commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence, R.I. Citizens has more than 1,600 branches, approximately 3,800 ATMs and more than 26,000 employees in a 13-state retail branch network and has non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states. Citizens is the eighth-largest commercial banking company in the United States ranked by deposits. Citizens is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc).Citizens’ Web site is citizensbank.com.

About BCLT

The Burlington Community Land Trust is a grassroots organization whose goal is to ensure access to affordable homes and vital communities for all people through the democratic stewardship of land. BCLT, founded in 1984, is the largest and among the oldest land trusts in the country. It serves Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle Counties in northwestern Vermont.

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