February 22, 2023
Projects in Dorchester and Mattapan are set to receive millions in funding as part of a City Hall effort to create and preserve hundreds of income-restricted housing units.
Mayor Wu last week announced $67 million in new funding, spread to 17 projects across 8 neighborhoods. The money, which comes primarily from three sources — the Mayor’s Office of Housing, the Community Preservation Fund, and the Neighborhood Housing Trust —focuses on 802 housing units, with 160 of them set aside for seniors. Most of the units are mixed income, with rental housing for families and homeownership opportunities for city residents considered to have low to moderate incomes.
The projects also meet standards for zero-emissions and transit-oriented development.
In Uphams Corner, two nonprofits, Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp. (EDC) and the Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), are seeking to renovate the former Dorchester Savings Bank building in a 86,000-square-foot project dubbed “Columbia Crossing.” The mixed-used and mixed-income project by the Strand Theatre will create 48 income-restricted rental apartments, with 3,500 square feet of community space, and commercial space that will be less costly than the market rate. Twenty percent of the units will be marked for artists.
Columbia Crossing is steps from the Uphams Corner Station on the MBTA’s Fairmount commuter rail line, and close to four bus routes. Developers plan to install an all-electric cooling and heating system, as well as a solar array.
The project is going up on land owned by Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, which picked the two nonprofits through a competitive process involving requests for proposals.
The project, approved by the board of the Boston Planning and Development Agency in November, is receiving $3.9 million, Wu administration officials said in last week’s announcement.
“This vibrant, mixed-use, mixed-income, and transit-oriented development will preserve and adaptively reuse the historic Dorchester Savings Bank building,” Kimberly Lyle, CEO of Dorchester Bay EDC, said in a statement. “It will serve as a catalyst for future investment and development in the Uphams Corner neighborhood and provide affordable rental housing that is critically necessary.”
Another project set to receive funds totaling just over $5 million is DVM Consulting’s proposal to develop 5 vacant parcels along Blue Hill Avenue into 12 units of income-restricted rental housing and 18 income-restricted homeownership opportunities, for a total of 30 units. The parcels are city-owned and DVM Consulting won the project in 2021.
The project also would add 3,300 square feet of commercial space on the first floor. Two income-restricted rental units will be geared toward artists. The Boston branch of Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) last year loaned the project $750,000 for architectural plans and permitting and financing consultants.
Construction is expected to get underway this fall, with completion set for fall 2024.
The Mattapan-based developer, run by Dariela Villon-Maga, has also worked on the “Dot Crossing” project behind the Fields Corner MBTA Station.
The last Dorchester/Mattapan project included in last week’s announcement is the first building in the last phase of redeveloping the Mattapan State Hospital campus. 2Life Development Inc. is building the Brooke House, a 125-unit mixed-use building that will include supportive housing for seniors, two property managers who live in the building, a 4,000-square-foot child-care center, a 1,000-square-foot health care center, a small convenience store, and a 2,400-square-foot community space. A small convenience store is also part of the project.
The project, approved by the BPDA’s board earlier this month, is receiving $6 million from city funding sources.
“These housing awards represent significant investments in making our communities stronger and more affordable, ensuring that Boston remains a place that current residents, families and future generations can call home,” Wu said in a statement.
The other projects include the renovation of the Brian Honan Apartments in Allston ($1.5 million); the Asian Community Development Corp.’s redevelopment of a Chinatown parcel into income-restricted rental and homeownership units, along with a new neighborhood library branch ($11.8 million); Roxbury Tenants of Harvard developing a new 12-story building at 775 Huntington Ave. in Mission Hill ($6 million); and South Boston Neighborhood Development Corp. redeveloping the former convent known as McDevitt Hall into senior housing ($5.1 million)
Jamaica Plain and Roxbury each have three projects receiving city funding.
In JP, Pennrose Development and the Hyde Square Task Force are redeveloping the former Blessed Sacrament Church into rental housing and performance space ($6.2 million); Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp.’s plan to redevelop Boston Housing Authority property by demolishing two buildings and building a new six-story building ($5.2 million); and Urban Edge Community Development Corp.’s project to demolish one building and replace it with a new one in the same BHA complex, Mildred Hailey ($4 million).
In Roxbury, there is money for: Madison Park Community Development Corp. and Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts teaming up to demolish a building and develop 84-88 Warren Street ($6 million); Nuestra Comunidad Development Corp.’s Copeland Corner project ($1.9 million); and Trinity Financial and Madison Park Community Development Corp.’s plan to develop 2085 Washington St. in Nubian Square ($4.5 million).