Attorney Lawrence Levinson (left) surveys the crowd as auctioneer Francis Trapasso of Worcester takes bids on behalf of the mortgagee, North Middlesex Savings Bank, at the auction of the Harvard Inn, May 18. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
The Inn on Fairbank Street—a multi-family home that had offered affordable rentals for more than 20 years—was sold last Thursday to Rick Curtin of Stow Road. Curtin, who has lived in Harvard for less than a month, competed against three others at the foreclosure auction and won the circa-1825 house on a bid of $226,000.
The bid won Curtin the house, which he described after the auction as “a gem…in a great location.” But the bid was not sufficient to clear the debt owed to the mortgagee, North Middlesex Savings Bank. As a result, the other multi-family property that is covered by the defaulted loan—Great Elms on Stow Road—remains subject to foreclosure if stakeholders cannot raise money to cover what is owed in principal, interest, and fees.
On Monday, the bank’s chief operating officer, Walter Dwyer, said the May auction for Great Elms was cancelled for now, but that the bank “certainly retains the right to proceed.”
“We are hopeful that we might be able to work something out with the various stakeholders, including the Town of Harvard/Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, the state, and [the owners] Harvard Trust Non-Profit Properties,” he said in an email this week. Dwyer estimated the total amount of the shortfall, including principal and all other costs, as somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000.
Both properties entered foreclosure proceedings last year after the volunteer group that owned the properties, Harvard Trust Non-Profit Properties ran out of money.
Since then, local officials have focused on The Inn and Great Elms because they are the only state-sanctioned affordable rentals in Harvard that are open to families. All other affordable rentals are restricted to those over 55. The nine units contained at The Inn and Great Elms—with rents ranging from $470 to $1,025, including heat—also count toward Harvard’s inventory of affordable homes, which stands at 5.4 of the state-mandated 10 percent.
Last month, the Department of Housing and Community Development told the Press they want to work with Harvard to replicate units lost to foreclosure: four were lost with last week’s auction. If Great Elms is also sold, there will be five more units to replace, as well as another debt to repay: a $325,861 HUD loan—unrelated to the bank loan—granted to Harvard Trust Non Profit Properties in 1995 to repair and update the antique properties. That debt, repayable only in the event the property is sold, would not accrue to a new owner, but to the state.
“It might be in the state’s best interest to help preserve Great Elms,” said trust president Victor Normand last week.
On Thursday, The Inn’s new owner, accompanied by business associate Bob McGinty, would say only that his plans for the property included “renovation.” Zoning bylaw allows The Inn to remain multi-family or revert to single-family status, but the affordability restriction on the place ends with the sale.
