75 Morrissey Boulevard Lawsuit Clouds 754-Unit Dorchester Project

A lawsuit over 75 Morrissey Boulevard threatens to delay one of Boston’s largest approved housing projects, a pair of 18-story towers with 754 apartments in Dorchester. Boston developer Copper Mill sued landowners POB Capital and Pactolus Private Wealth Management on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, alleging fraud and seeking to force the $67.5 million sale of the site, The Boston Globe and Bisnow reported.

The Deal at a Glance

• Size: a $67.5 million purchase agreement for a roughly 2.2-acre site, approved for 754 apartments, 150 of them income-restricted, according to the complaint as described by Bisnow.
• Start: Copper Mill agreed to buy the land on Dec. 18, 2024, with closing set 18 months later so it could win city approvals first.
• End: the purchase-and-sale agreement expired on June 30, 2026, Universal Hub reported, and the owners sent Copper Mill a notice terminating a later joint venture on the same date, according to Bisnow.
• Impact: the Globe said the dispute could significantly delay the project at a time when few large residential developments are breaking ground in Boston.

The lawsuits were filed in both Suffolk Superior Court and Massachusetts Land Court. Banker & Tradesman first reported the case. The claims are allegations in a complaint and have not been tested in court.

What Copper Mill Alleges

POB, based in Chicago, and Pactolus, based in Virginia, paid $56 million for the site, the Globe reported, and Copper Mill alleges they did little with it before agreeing to sell. The parcel is the former home of the Channel 56 television station, according to Universal Hub. Copper Mill filed its plans with the city in March 2025, and the Boston Planning & Development Agency board approved the two towers in August 2025. Universal Hub reported that the approved plan also calls for two new roads and a public park.

According to the complaint, POB managing principal Richard Holly told Copper Mill chief executive Andrew Flynn that if the developer won permits for 754 units, he and Pactolus CEO Alan Harter would “look like morons” for agreeing to the $67.5 million price. Holly then pressed for a joint venture in which the investors would raise money and Copper Mill would handle development, the suit says. Bisnow reported that the venture was formed on Sept. 4, 2025, with POB and Pactolus jointly holding 64.35% and Copper Mill holding 35.65%.

Copper Mill alleges the investors never seriously tried to finance the project, calling the effort a “sham,” and that promised meetings with potential funders fell through. The complaint also alleges the owners quietly approached another, unnamed Boston developer with a proposal that valued the property at $82.5 million and described it as “shovel ready,” which Copper Mill says violated a ban on marketing the site in the original agreement. The Globe quoted the complaint as saying the defendants “formulated a scheme to recover the Property.”

The Superior Court case includes nine counts, among them fraud, civil conspiracy, tortious interference with a contract and a claim under the state’s consumer and trade-practices law, according to Bisnow and Universal Hub. Copper Mill wants the courts to enforce the original sale and to award damages to be set at trial.

Why the Site Matters for Boston Housing

Large projects have been especially hard to start in Boston. At an Oct. 15 Boston Planning & Development Agency board meeting, a city presentation showed that no project with more than 300 units had begun construction in the past four years, Bisnow reported. The board approved temporary tax breaks for four large projects that night, a pilot program we covered in our report on Mayor Wu’s housing tax incentives.

The Globe described the area around the site as a section of Dorchester slated to transform over the next decade with big development projects. Nearby is the Dorchester Bay City site, where a separate developer is seeking financing, as we reported in Dorchester Bay City Loan: $400M Bid for 700 Homes. Bisnow noted that 75 Morrissey Blvd. falls within Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed map for the next round of federal opportunity zones, a tax incentive that takes effect next year.

Copper Mill has had a setback elsewhere this year. In August it stepped away from a 502-unit project it had proposed in Somerville’s Davis Square, blaming a lack of support from that city, Bisnow reported.

Our Take

This section is analysis and opinion, separate from the reporting above. We take no position on the legal merits of the case.

Whatever a court decides, the dispute shows how much a city approval is worth on its own. If the figures in the complaint are accurate, the land went from a $56 million purchase to a $67.5 million sale price, and then to an $82.5 million pitch once permits for 754 units were in hand. That jump is the value of Boston’s entitlement process, and it explains why owners and developers fight over who keeps it.

The harder lesson is that permits do not build housing. Boston approved this project more than a year ago, yet the case turns on whether anyone could raise the money to start. City tax breaks can help at the margins, but projects of this size still need equity and construction loans in a market where returns are thin. A long court fight would freeze one of the few large, fully approved sites in the city, and that is bad news for renters regardless of who prevails.

Reactions

“We have worked closely with the city of Boston and neighborhood stakeholders to earn their support and approval for the development of 750 housing units — housing that is needed now, without further delay,” Flynn said in a statement to the Globe. Copper Mill attorney Aaron D. Rosenberg of Sheehan Phinney said the company “looks forward to recovering its rights to the property at 75 Morrissey Boulevard and the damages caused by its former business partners’ conduct.”

A representative for Pactolus declined to comment to the Globe, and representatives for POB did not return requests for comment. Josh Zakim, a former Boston city councilor who leads the advocacy group Housing Forward MA, told the Globe the dispute is poorly timed. “It’s a significant project, especially these days when there’s not a lot of developers even trying to do something of this size,” he said.

Featured image: The JFK/UMass MBTA station in Dorchester, near the Morrissey Boulevard corridor, November 2024. Photo by 4300streetcar via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Sources

• The Boston Globe: Developer of 750-unit housing project sues partner, alleges fraud (Oct. 20, 2026)
• Bisnow: Copper Mill sues partners over collapsed deal for 750-unit Dorchester project (Oct. 19, 2026)
• Universal Hub: Developer sues landowner over proposed 754-unit Dorchester apartment complex (Oct. 19, 2026)
• Banker & Tradesman: Dorchester towers developer claims fraud
• Bisnow: Wu secures approval to give tax breaks to 4 big multifamily projects (Oct. 16, 2026)