The city’s Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) is preparing to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a vacant, city-owned lot on Westville Street that could become the new home of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, now located in Fields Corner.

An Institute spokesman, Chris Keohan, confirmed that it will participate in the RFP process, and if successful in that endeavor, will be submitting a proposal for a new headquarters and community center on a long-vacant site across from the old John Marshall School, now the UP Academy Dorchester. He couldn’t say much more, he said, as the Institute has not secured the property just yet.

“The folks at the Institute are always looking at ways to better serve the community,” Keohan said. “We’re looking at the RFP and are excited about it and are looking to submit a proposal in that RFP process. It really does come down to having an eye out for opportunities.”

The lot is also about a block from Louis D. Brown Way, which runs between Westville and Corona streets, and near where Institute founder Clementina Chery lives.

Said DND Assistant Director Shani Fletcher, “The Peace Institute came to us, and they were interested in that lot. But long before they came to us, they were out having conversations with neighbors and the community…We do have to open a competitive RFP process…The community meetings were nothing but abundant, full-throated support for this use. There were some concerns about saving some trees, but that was the only thing that wasn’t full-throated support for a center there that would provide these kinds of services to the community.”

City Councillor Andrea Campbell said the Peace Institute was running out of space at their Christopher Street headquarters, and that her office looked around to find what resources were available to help.

“They were bursting at the seams,” she said. “We wanted to look at our resources and see where we might be able to help them using what we have.”

The city has already held its community meetings, and a re-zoning process was completed this month to allow for a use like a community center. The next step will be to work on an RFP with the local Neighborhood Association and then issue it in the new year. She said this is a unique situation, so it could take time to craft the RFP.

The effort is another example, Fletcher said, of taking long-held vacant city lots and getting them back to use for things like housing or community programming. “It’s not always the fastest process,” she said, “but we’re committed to putting land back into public use and out of city hands.”

The Institute was founded in 1994 by Chery in the name of her son, who was caught in the crossfire during a shootout near his home in 1993 when he was 15. At the time, the city had no support network or resources for surviving relatives of homicide victims. The Institute looks to provide those resources and to change the narrative about how street violence is reported and responded to.