MassDevelopment issues $1.5m tax-exempt bond to The Guild of St. Agnes of Worcester

Worcester, MA MassDevelopment has issued a $1.5 million tax-exempt bond on behalf of The Guild of St. Agnes of Worcester, a nonprofit early education and care agency serving Worcester County. The agency is using bond proceeds to buy a 19,600 s/f child care center from MAPFRE Insurance Company. The Guild has been a tenant in the MAPFRE building since 2012, where it has operated a child care center that serves 160 children ages four months to five years. Peoples United Bank purchased the bond.

The Guild of St. Agnes of Worcester - Worcester, MA

“The Guild of St. Agnes provides quality affordable childcare and education to hundreds of families in the Worcester area,” said MassDevelopment president and CEO Marty Jones. “We are pleased to support the agency’s growth as it continues to provide students and families with a safe and loving environment in which children can grow, learn, and play.”

Founded in 1913, The Guild of St. Agnes’s mission is to provide families with quality, affordable, early childhood education and school-age programs in a safe, nurturing environment for children ages four weeks to 12 years. It operates nine childcare centers, 13 after school programs, and contracts with 115 home-based, licensed, family child care programs. The Guild’s child care centers are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the gold standard for quality early childhood education.

“Great successes come about when civic-minded people and institutions work together for the well-being of others. We’re grateful to MAPFRE, the Baker-Polito administration, Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, People’s United Bank, and MassDevelopment for their support of this project,” said Ed Madaus, executive director of the Guild of St. Agnes. “MassDevelopment staff worked tirelessly to create a favorable financing package that ultimately allowed us to close the deal, and all of these organizations worked hard, day in and day out, to achieve a common good.”

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development agency, works with businesses, nonprofits, financial institutions, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. During FY2016, MassDevelopment financed or managed 352 projects generating investment of more than $4 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are projected to create about 8,200 jobs and build or rehabilitate about 4,200 residential units.