A proposal to develop 403 residential units off Dorchester’s Boston Street received approval last Thursday from the city’s planning agency.

The board of the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) approved the new residential housing and retail project, which includes nearly 50,000 square feet of open space that will be available to the public.

Known as the Jan Karski Way Extension Project, the residential units, spanning nearly four acres in buildings of four to five stories, will include 60 units designated as affordable housing. The project also calls for 14,655 square feet of retail space and 268 parking spaces.

The developer, Bass Realty LLC, tapped Stantec Architecture and Engineering as the designers for the project, which is located at 173 Boston and 5 Enterprise streets between the South Bay shopping plaza and a neighborhood of traditional three-deckers and next door to the Dorchester Historical Society.

The project comes amid a wave of development in the area near the South Bay shopping plaza, which itself has seen an overhaul, with a movie theater and new restaurants.

The Boston Street project is also close to public transit; it’s about a ten-minute walk to both the Andrew MBTA Station and the Newmarket commuter rail station. Plans call for 88 visitor bike spaces and a BlueBikes station, as well as new bus stop shelters on Boston Street. Additionally, one-way Enterprise Street will be reconstructed.

The project is expected to boost Boston property tax revenues by $2 million a year and bring in 400 construction jobs.
Once the building begins, it’s estimated to last about two years. When the project was first proposed in September 2019, the first available residential units were slated to open in autumn 2022.