Twelve income-restricted condominiums built through the city’s Welcome Home, Boston program on formerly city-owned vacant lots at 104-108 Norwell St. in Dorchester’s Four Corners neighborhood are nearly all reserved, with full occupancy expected by mid-November, according to a report published by the Dorchester Reporter on Oct. 7 and shared by WBUR on Oct. 9. As of that report, one three-bedroom unit priced at $393,120 remained available through the city’s Housing Office lottery.
The project came out of the Wu administration’s homeownership initiative, which offers city-owned parcels, subsidy and technical help to developers who build homes for first-time, income-qualified buyers.
The Norwell Street homes at a glance
The development consists of three new buildings with four condominium units each, ranging from studios to three-bedroom homes, the Reporter reported. All 12 are deed-restricted for income-qualified buyers. Half are priced for households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income and half for households earning up to 100 percent, according to developer Milo Stella.
The units were listed on the city’s website in May. By early October, all but one had been reserved. Two homeowners moved in on Sept. 18, and several more closings are expected this month, the Reporter reported.
Who built it and how
The developer is DOT Design Collaborative, a company formed in 2023 by architect Jennifer Ha, co-founder of Hue Architecture, and Stella, who runs Star Contracting. The city’s July 2025 progress report on the program lists the team as Dorchester Design Collaborative among its Phase 1 and Phase 2 developers. According to the Reporter, Ha and Stella had each been approached about earlier Welcome Home, Boston projects, were not selected in the first round, and then combined forces to bid on the Norwell Street parcels.
All three buildings are being certified under the Passive House standard, an approach that relies on an airtight building envelope, heavy insulation and controlled ventilation to cut energy use. The buildings carry rooftop solar panels that will be owned by the future condominium associations. The wall, floor and roof panels were largely prefabricated indoors by Bensonwood, a New Hampshire manufacturer, and assembled on site by crane. Stella told the Reporter that once foundations were in place, crews could assemble and weatherproof each building in roughly three weeks, and that the method reduced exposure to weather delays but did not necessarily save money up front.
Costs and public subsidy
Ha and Stella put construction costs at roughly $6 million and total development costs at about $7.9 million. Dividing the reported total by 12 units works out to roughly $658,000 per home, a Boston Report calculation, compared with the $393,120 price listed for the remaining three-bedroom unit. The developers said the project relied on city subsidy funds, matching assistance from MassHousing, and financing from what they described as a mission-driven lender.
“What we were able to accomplish on our project was really only possible because of the subsidy structure that we were able to tap into,” Stella told the Reporter. He said the project is an argument for continuing to fund the grant programs involved, adding that developers “can’t fix the macro-economic situation of land costs and construction costs in the city of Boston.”
Sheila Dillon, Boston’s chief of Housing, said in a statement to the Reporter that the development “shows exactly what the Wu administration is working to accomplish through Welcome Home, Boston.” She said the homes are “well designed, energy-efficient, close to transit” and priced so income-qualified buyers can purchase them.
Where the Welcome Home, Boston program stands
Mayor Michelle Wu announced the program in her January 2023 State of the City address. According to the city’s program page, the mayor and City Council allotted $58 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to speed production of affordable homes through it. In a July 2025 announcement, the city said Phases 1 and 2 had put 28 parcels on track to become 144 future homes, many then under construction or in closing.
For Phase 3, the city’s program page lists 11 parcels in Dorchester, Hyde Park and Roxbury, totaling about 47,838 square feet of vacant land, with proposals that were due Oct. 15, 2025. The July 2025 announcement had described 12 parcels for more than 30 homes. The city has said more phases may follow, with Phase 4 details still to come. The program is one of several city housing tools covered recently on this site, alongside the Boston Housing Accelerator Fund’s $35 million in loans and proposed housing tax abatements for stalled projects.
How buyers qualify for city homeownership lotteries
Homes built through the Mayor’s Office of Housing are sold by lottery. To qualify, the city says, buyers must earn less than the maximum household limits at 100 percent of area median income, be first-time homebuyers, complete an approved homebuyer education course, and meet the minimum household size for the unit. The Boston Home Center offers homebuyer classes and down payment and closing cost assistance. Dorchester has also been the focus of larger housing proposals, including the Dorchester Bay City loan bid for 700 homes.
Sources
- Dorchester Reporter: On Norwell Street, affordable ‘passive’ homes replace longtime vacant lots
- WBUR: Affordable ‘passive’ homes replace longtime vacant lots in Dorchester
- Boston.gov: Welcome Home, Boston
- Boston.gov: Mayor Michelle Wu announces Welcome Home Boston, Phase 3, provides progress report on homeownership programs