Harvard announced Wednesday that it would sell a low-income housing development it owns in Roxbury to the development's tenants' association for $66 million.

Harvard built the Riverway at Mission Park complex in 1976 after buying up large tracts of land in the neighborhood for the development of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

University officials admitted yesterday that the 13.5-acre complex's construction was accompanied by a neighborhood fight--as Roxbury residents protested Harvard moving in.

A press release said the complex's residents are mostly families and elderly people. According to the Boston Globe, all but eight apartments and townhouses of the complex's 775 units are financed by Section 8 housing subsidies from the federal government.

And so since its construction, the complex's tenants association, called the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard (RTH), has been trying to buy the property back.

According to the Boston Globe, last month the RTH secured a $48 million loan from the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency to pay off the outstanding mortgage, plus an additional $18 million in equity financing to purchase the property.

Harvard's Director of Community Relations, Kevin A. McCluskey '76, said the University has always intended to sell the property back to tenants.

"We wanted to have Mission Park be both owned and operated by Roxbury tenants of Harvard," McCluskey said. "This transaction allows us to complete that loop in a very positive fashion."

Harvard and RTH had been in negotiations about selling the property for several months.