LAST UPDATED 08/15/19
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JAMES A. FRIEDEN, ESQUIRE, PC
JAMES A. FRIEDEN
THOMAS S. FRANCIS
FOUR LIBERTY SQUARE. SUIT 320
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETT5 02190
December 20, 1989
Boston Redevelopment Authority
One City Hall Square
City Hall
Boston, MA 02201
Attention: Stephen Coyly, Director
Hand Deiivered by Constable
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please be advised that this office represents V & M Management, Inc, owner of the Mandela Deveropment (formerly known as
Westminster/Willard) located at 10-22-26-30-34 Hammond Street, 53 - 57 Windsor Street, 150 - 160 Northampton Street,560 - 570 , 580 Shawmut Avenue, 1825 - 1829-1833 - 1837 - 1841 - 1845 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts. This letter is to give you notice pursuant to Section 402 of the Land Disposition Agreements dated October 29, 1970 between the BRA and Willard Place, Inc. and Westminster Place, inc. governing the premises, that V & M Management, Inc. intends to execute a mortgage and related security agreements to Greystone Funding Corporation, 597 Chauncey Lane, Lawrence, New York to secure a loan In the amount of $3,000,000.
Sincerely yours,
James A. Frieden, Esq.
cc: Saul A, Schapiro
December 20, 1989
Attorney James Frieden
4 Liberty Square, Suite 320
Boston, MA 02109
Dear Mr. Frieden:
Please be advised that upon reception of $500,000,00 In certified funds the Department of Revenue agrees to subordinate its tax liens relative to properties owned by V&M Management Inc. to Greystone Funding Corporation of New York.
Sincerely,
Arthur Chipouras
Tax Examiner
Collections Bureau
Telephone Unit
GREYSTONE FUNDING CORP.
December 14, 1989
To: James Freiden, Esq.
Fr: Jonathan B. Kohan
Re: Mandella Apartment Closing
Confirming our telephone conversation of earlier today, this is to advise you that a closing has been set in tha above referenced matter for Thursday, Dacember 21, 1989 at 9AM at the offices of Robinson, Silverman, pearce, Aronsohn £ Bserman, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York
Kindly stay in close cummunicfttion with Michael Zients, Esq. at 212.541.2000
Estimated Disbursements at Closing -Mandela Development necessary to Clear Liens Showing on Title Policy 12/8/89
Jason Long Mortgages assigned $650,000
Shamsi Mortgages (to be verified) $460,000
Boston Gas 70,000
Boston Edison 145,000
Fidelity Mortgage $224,000
Boston Water & Sewer $244,000
Attachment by Verticle Trans 18,000
Rehab Reserve 200,000
Payment to Stale Towards Taxes 500,000
Closing Costs and Points 330,000
Mortgage to Alphonse Simon 145,000
Total $ 2,985,000
JAMES A. FRIEDEN. ESQUIRE, P.C.
December 21, 1989
John O'Reilly
Collections Bureau
Massachusetts Department of Revenue
215 First Street
Cambridge, MA
Re: V&M Managment Inc/Mandela Development
Dear Mr. O'Reilly,
This letter is to request reconsideration of your refusal to agree to the added provisions of the subordination sought by Greystone Funding Corporation, I also request that you Involve policy making officials this decision because the potential foreclosure on the Mandela Development InvoFves issues of public policy broader than the more collection of unpaid taxes. Since the window of Opportunity to close this loan Is very small, 1 request a mBftting today with respect to this matter.
I want to stress that the subordination Issue Is the only issue preventing the refinancing from going forward. I believe that ftvery other requirement of the tender has bwn or can be met by V & M Managemant, Inc.
The taxes sought to be collecfd are Urban Redevelopment Excise Taxes on the Mandela Development which consists of 276 units of low income housing in the City of Boston. Virtually all of the residents of Mandela are black or Hispanic. All participate in the aection 8 program of federal subsidies. The vast majority of tile 1500 tenants of this project are woman and children.
The refinancing with Greystone is the only realistic way of avoiding foreclosure on the Mandela Development. Presently, a mortgagea has received permission from the Land Court to foreclose on the project. Thus. the sale could take place within three weeks al any point in time.
The management of the Mandela Development is presently drawn from the tenants themselves and in recent years the present management team has managed to turn the project around despite inadequate HUD aubsidies and a neighborhood rife with gang violence and drug related crime. The mortgagees who would foreclose have no experience at all jn managing low income housing. Nor do they have any obligation to retain the character of Mandela -- low income housing. They could, for example evict the tenants, demolish the buildings^ and build luxury housing or commercial buildings.
The $1.2 million plus in taxes claimed by the State are. accordinfl to law. to be paid directly to the City of Boston. The amount of these taxes is disputed by the tax payer in a law suit now pending rn the Superior Court and in proceedings before the Appellate Tax Board. One of the grounds for our efforts to reduce the tax burden on the project are that since the passage of Proposition 2 & 1/2 the Urban Redevelopment Excise. which was imposed on certain low Income projects In lieu of city real estate taxes, and which was intended to provteto a tax break for owners and tenants of low income housing, is now more than the City property taxes it was. intended to replace. Thus, low Income tenants pay roughly double the rate of city taxes that tenants of luxury income apartments pay. The poor (and federal programs designed to help the poor) are subsidizing the rich.
Another ground lor the dispute as to the taxes is that penalties and interest were assessed when the City was requiring V & M Management, Inc. to pay City property taxes.
It Is true that there are unpaid taxes- The reason for this is that money was spent on massive amounts of repairs caused by vandal and drug addicts.
The Department of Revenue has filed liens against this property but these liens are junior to mortgages which are now In default. V & M Management, Inc. is seeking $3 million In refinancing of rts second mortgage debt to avoid foreclosure, V & M Management. Inc. has agreed to pay $500,000 of the contested tax bill in return for the subordination of the tax Hen to the new financing, tf the mortgages, now in default, are foreclosed. th« entire tax lien will be loat and the Stale (as collection agent for the City of Boston) will receive nothing at ell.
The conditions sought by Greystone Funding are basically that the subordination relate to any refinancing, modification or extension of this loan. Your interpretation Is that this la not Included in the standard subordination form used by the Department of Revenue. Without an agreement between DOR and Greystone on this issue the refinancing will not go through.
To summarize, the reason that the DOR should agree to the conditions sought by Greystone are that:
1. V & M Management, Inc. contests the amount of the taxes;
2. The City of Boston desperately needs the money and agreement to the subordination to the only way to ensure that the City gets the $500.00 and to prevent Its entire tax lien from being wiped out at foreclosure.
V&M MANAGEMENT/ INC
10 Hammond Street,
Boston, MA 02120
Contact: Alphonse Mourad, President
Press Release: February 9, 1995
V&M Management and its president Alphonse Mourad, owner of the Mandela Apartments, a 276 unit low-income housing development in Roxbury, announced thai they had filed a multi-million dollar claim in federal court against HUD, The suit claims that since 1982, HUD and its officers have knowingly discriminated against V&M Management ID the operation of the section 8 rent subsidy program, have deprived the tenants of necessary services and have driven the company to the verge of bankruptcy,
The suits further claims that:
* HUD officials continually made knowingly false sratements and misrepresentations about the tax status of the complex, which resulted in millions or dollars of litigation.
*HUD set rentals far below what other section 8 projects were receiving , refused to provide adequate replacement reserves, and refused Co provide adequate funding for security at Mandela. forcing Ene company to borrow millions or dollars at high Interest rates.
* HUD intentona11y mishandled V&M's application for a 223f refinancing loan- While 3 letter from HUD's regional economist approved the loan in house and states in a letter to the Boston office that, "EMAS assumes that HUD will ensure that the project IMandeEal remains affordable to low and moderate income tenants when the section 8 contract empires in 1996, Based on the above, EMAS recommends approval of the 223F application." HUD officials hired a private consultant to find a reason to reverse that decision While V&M was denied refinancing. Beacon Companies received $2,000,000 more from HUD than Et had requested.
* HUD approved $98,000,000 in loans between 1991 aid 1993 to preserve low income housing in Massachusetts- Of the $98,000,000 approved and allocated, only $19,000,000 went into project improvements, while $69.000.0CO went into owners pocket as pure profit. The suit also argues that while HUD was denying V&M Management's rent increases to market rent, one company received a rent increase of 70% above market cents-
Alphonse Mourad noted that at the very same time his project was being refused any benefits under the section 8 program or the loan refinancing, Brandywine Village in East Boston was approved for $14,000,000 in additional HUD loans- While the Mandela Apartment are 100% Black and Latino, BrandywEne according to HL'D has only 7% minority occupancy. "It seems strange to me," Mr, Mourad commented, "that complexes with mostly minority tenants are being dumped on MHFA, while the owners of projects like Brandywine, Camelot, or Georgetown, where there are less than 25% minorities, are being given millions of dollars of pure profit by HUD."