Harvard Street Health Center Breaks Ground on 49,000-Square-Foot Dorchester Building

Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center broke ground Thursday, Oct. 29, on a three-story, 49,000-square-foot building at 8 Old Road in Dorchester, next to its longtime home at 632 Blue Hill Ave. The community health center says the new building will more than double its space and let it grow from about 10,600 patients a year to about 14,000, according to the center and the Dorchester Reporter.

49,000 sq. ft. · +3,400 patients a year · $20M tax-exempt bond · 18-24 months to build

What is being built

The new building goes up on a former brownfield site on Old Road. Commodore Builders is the general contractor, and construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months, according to the Dorchester Reporter. The center said the added space will bring new services, including portable radiology and treatment for substance use disorder.

Harvard Street has served the neighborhood since the late 1960s. About 97% of its patients are low-income, according to the center. Chief Executive Charley Murphy told the Dorchester Reporter that the center’s board asked him to pursue a new building 12 years ago. “This is a huge day,” Murphy said at the groundbreaking.

City Councilor Brian Worrell said, “This doubles their clinical space and allows them to serve thousands more patients each year,” according to the Dorchester Reporter.

How the project is financed

The financing stack combines debt, tax credits, state money and private gifts, according to the center’s announcement:

• A $20 million tax-exempt bond issued through MassDevelopment and purchased by South Shore Bank.
• Nearly $53 million in combined New Markets Tax Credit allocation from The Community Builders, MHIC, BlueHub Capital, Broadstreet/LISC, CHC Capital Fund and JPMorganChase.
• $8 million in state American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and a $5 million state earmark, plus MassDevelopment brownfields funding.
• Gifts of $1.5 million from Bancel Philanthropies and $500,000 from Boston Medical Center.

The tax credit figure is an allocation amount. Under the federal program, investors claim credits over seven years in exchange for equity, so the cash that reaches a project is smaller than the allocation. Leaving the tax credits aside, the bond, state funds and the two named gifts add up to $35 million (TBR calculation). The center did not publish a total project cost in the materials we reviewed.

The patient growth works out to 3,400 more patients a year, a 32% increase over today’s roughly 10,600 (TBR calculation).

Our Take

Analysis by The Boston Report. Community health centers rarely get to build from scratch, and this project shows what it takes: a bond, six tax credit partners, two kinds of state money and philanthropy, assembled over more than a decade. The use of ARPA dollars matters because that federal pandemic money has to be committed on a deadline, and capital projects like this one are where it leaves a lasting mark.

The operating side is the harder test. Centers like Harvard Street depend heavily on MassHealth and federal grants, so serving 3,400 more patients will require staff and reimbursement that a new building alone does not supply. Hospital partners are under their own pressure, as our coverage of the 340B drug pricing fight at MGH and Brigham shows, while big private gifts like the $200 million pledge to Boston Children’s tend to flow to the largest institutions. A neighborhood center securing $2 million in named gifts is notable in that landscape.

What comes next

The center has said a second phase, with The Community Builders, would bring more than 100 affordable housing units to its Blue Hill Avenue properties, according to the Dorchester Reporter. That phase would go through the city’s development review. For more on new income-restricted housing, see our report on affordable rentals at Bartlett Station and Mission Hill.

Sources

• Dorchester Reporter: Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center breaks ground on new building (Oct. 30, 2026)
• Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center: To break ground on new building
• EIN Presswire: Harvard Street release
• Dorchester Reporter: Plans for new Harvard Street health facility moving ahead (Aug. 28, 2026)