2 | SECURITY GUARD October 17, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 43
13 | FAIRFIELD CFO AWARDS
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M&T Bank rolls out mortgage subsidy program for underserved communities BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
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At issue: unpaid rent. As a condition of SIC moving in to the building in 2012, rent was waived by the Old Town Hall Redevelopment Agency (OTHRA), according to its chairman Tim Curtin. Beginning in 2013, monthly rent due was $14,000 to start and has since graduated to $16,000. But for the past three years SIC has only been paying “toward” utilities, Curtin said: “It’s not enough to cover the entire (utilities) bill.” OTHRA is now in the process of crafting a formal eviction notice, Curtin said, which he expects to be delivered sometime next week. Yet to be determined is the eviction notice’s effectiveness date: “I can’t say
uffalo-based M&T Bank is launching a mortgage subsidy program that allows qualifying homebuyers who are purchasing or refinancing properties in targeted neighborhoods within several counties throughout the Northeast — including towns in Fairfield and Westchester counties — as much as $18,750. The program is available for buying or refinancing properties in U.S. Census tracts where more than 50 percent of residents are African-American and/or Hispanic. Scott Vahue, senior vice president for mortgage lending at M&T, said the program was available to qualified customers in the Fairfield municipalities of Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk, Stamford and Stratford. In addition, eligible census tracts in Westchester are in Bedford, Mount Kisco, Ossining, Peekskill, Port Chester, the Mount Pleasant-HarrisonElmsford area, and the Yonkers-Mount Vernon-New Rochelle area. The program is also available in several other New York counties, as well as a number of counties in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. “You can also live just outside the eligible towns,” Vahue said. “Just because you’re not technically within a given city’s limits doesn’t mean that we can’t help.” The subsidy program can assist qualified buyers in a variety of ways, including: • Contributing toward the down payment to purchase a house. •Buying down the interest rate of the loan. • Paying closing costs such as: mortgage insurance, recording fees, mort-
» Stamford Center, page 19
» Bank, page 6
The Old Town Hall in Stamford, home of Stamford Innovation Center. For now, anyway.
STAMFORD INNOVATION CENTER FACING EVICTION BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
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ime appears to be running out for the Stamford Innovation Center (SIC), which is facing eviction from its longtime home at 175 Atlantic St. in the
building known as Old Town Hall. “It’s incredibly shortsighted and detrimental to the ongoing economic development of the city,” said SIC Managing Partner Barry Schwimmer. “Their actions, I believe, are unwarranted and will cause the company, the community and myself personally significant and irreparable harm.”