105 Affordable Apartments Cleared for Former Mattapan Garage on Blue Hill Ave.

A nonprofit developer tied to the Archdiocese of Boston has closed on a former auto-repair site in Mattapan Square where city officials have already approved a six-story building with 105 income-restricted apartments — a project now shifting from land acquisition into the multi-year hunt for construction financing.

The Planning Office for Urban Affairs (POUA) and partner JGE Development acquired 1590 Blue Hill Avenue, a roughly 1.6-acre parcel long used for automotive repairs, Bisnow reported in late October. Colliers advised the McKeen family, which had operated the garage since 1976. Bisnow’s corrected deal sheet put the sale at $5.7 million.

What the city approved

The Boston Planning & Development Agency project page describes about 105 income-restricted rental apartments, about 1,000 square feet of community or commercial space along Blue Hill Avenue, about 31 surface parking spaces, bicycle storage and an L-shaped building of roughly 120,000 square feet of gross floor area. Banker & Tradesman reported the BPDA board approved the roughly $72.3 million plan in August 2026.

According to Banker & Tradesman, units would be reserved for households earning 30% to 80% of area median income, and two- and three-bedroom apartments would make up about 68% of the total — a mix aimed at families rather than a studio-heavy inventory. The site sits in a Squares and Streets zoning district created to encourage multifamily housing along commercial corridors; JGE Development President Jonathan Garland told the BPDA board that Squares and Streets helped create as-of-right projects that can move without Zoning Board of Appeal relief, the paper reported.

POUA and JGE are also partners on the previously approved 217-unit Drexel Village project in Roxbury, Banker & Tradesman noted, underscoring a repeated collaboration between the archdiocesan housing arm and the private developer.

Data analysis: size, cost and timeline

Sources listed in the right column; sale-price figure follows Bisnow’s corrected Deal Sheet, not a later secondary summary that cited $8.75 million.

We Are Home, summarizing Banker & Tradesman and related reporting, said developers are beginning to secure construction financing that is projected to take at least two years, with the final affordability mix depending on public funding sources. That timeline means lottery and income-eligibility rules for renters are still ahead, not imminent.

Colliers Executive Vice President Jeanne Pinado, who represented the sellers, said she was proud of her role in the eventual development of 105 affordable homes by POUA, calling the office a catalyst for housing development and neighborhood revitalization, according to Bisnow.

How it fits Mattapan’s housing push

PLAN: Mattapan and Squares and Streets zoning have steered larger residential projects onto Blue Hill Avenue and other commercial spines where auto and retail uses have long dominated. Replacing a nearly century-old automotive footprint — We Are Home noted automotive uses on the site dating to 1925 — with family-sized affordable rentals matches that corridor strategy, provided the tax-credit and soft-debt stack comes together.

For renters watching Mattapan, the near-term action is to track financing announcements and any future lottery rather than expect openings soon. Broader Boston news and housing coverage will follow when public funding awards or a construction start are confirmed.

Financing and what still has to happen

Affordable rental projects of this size typically stack federal and state low-income housing tax credits, soft debt from the city or state, and conventional construction debt. Banker & Tradesman noted that POUA and JGE are already pursuing tax-credit financing on their Roxbury Drexel Village partnership, a signal that the same capital markets will be asked to underwrite Blue Hill Avenue. Until those awards land, the 105 units remain an entitled concept on a closed land deal rather than a construction site.

We Are Home advised prospective renters to keep income documentation ready and to watch for lottery rules once they are published, rather than expecting near-term openings. The BPDA approval and as-of-right Squares and Streets zoning remove one layer of land-use uncertainty, but they do not replace the credit allocation calendar that governs when shovels can hit the ground.

The site’s location in the Mattapan Square business district also matters for daily life once the building opens: ground-floor community or commercial space along Blue Hill Avenue is meant to keep the street active, while 31 parking spaces and bicycle storage acknowledge both car and transit access along a corridor already served by MBTA buses. For neighborhood context beyond this parcel, see our Boston news coverage of housing and corridor planning.

Sources

• Bostonplans.org: 1590 Blue Hill Avenue project page
• Banker & Tradesman: BPDA approves $72M development in Mattapan
• Bisnow: Nonprofit developer buys Mattapan site for affordable housing (Deal Sheet)
• We Are Home: Mattapan garage site eyed for 105 affordable homes