Boston Opens 44 Affordable Rentals in Roxbury, Breaks Ground on 48 Homes in Mission Hill

Boston affordable housing added two milestones this week: the city and Urban Edge opened 44 income-restricted apartments at 59 Bartlett Station in Roxbury, and city officials broke ground on Mission Hill Pathway, a 48-home ownership project for first-time buyers, according to the City of Boston. Together, the two projects account for 92 income-restricted homes, all of them on land that once sat as a bus yard or vacant city lots.

59 Bartlett Station: 44 rentals on a former MBTA bus yard

The Mayor’s Office of Housing joined Urban Edge, Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation and residents to mark the opening of 59 Bartlett Station, the city said. All 44 apartments are income-restricted. The building is part of a long-running redevelopment of an 8.5-acre former MBTA bus yard that the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan identified for housing and economic development. Community planning started in the early 2000s, and construction on the site began in 2017 after environmental cleanup.

The five-story building covers about 49,000 square feet and includes 33 parking spaces, 44 bicycle spaces and an indoor community room, Boston Agent Magazine reported. The developers envision a 10-building, 367-unit neighborhood on the full site, mixing affordable, moderate-income and market-rate rentals with homeownership and senior housing, according to the magazine.

Funding came from the Mayor’s Office of Housing, the Neighborhood Housing Trust, the city’s Community Preservation Fund, the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, MassHousing, CEDAC, Mass Save, RBC Capital Markets and JPMorgan Chase, the city said.

“Bartlett Station has been years in the making, shaped by the ideas, determination, and commitment of Roxbury residents,” said Sheila A. Dillon, Boston’s chief of housing.

What a unit costs

A city Metrolist listing for the building shows two-bedroom apartments set at 80% of area median income (AMI) renting for $2,978 a month, with a minimum household income of $82,286 a year. Water, sewer, heat and hot water are included. The listing is first come, first served, with applications accepted through Jan. 31, 2027. By a Boston Report calculation, the minimum income works out to rent equal to about 43% of gross income at that floor.

Mission Hill Pathway: 48 homes for first-time buyers

On Thursday, Oct. 29, the city broke ground on Mission Hill Pathway, which will turn long-vacant city land into 48 income-restricted homes for first-time buyers, about 30,000 square feet of recreation and urban agriculture space, and roughly 2,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space on Terrace Street for local entrepreneurs.

The homes will be sold to first-time buyers earning between 80% and 100% of AMI. The developer, ODJ Dev LLC, is a joint venture of DVM Housing Partners, Oxbow Urban and JGE Development, chosen through a city request for proposals. The project sits on city-owned parcels at 77 Terrace Street and 778-796 Parker Street, according to the city project page. The city’s construction listing gives a projected completion date of April 28, 2028.

The development centers on an all-electric, net-zero-carbon building of about 45,000 square feet. The new public open space will be owned by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and cared for by The Trustees of Reservations, which will also own and manage the community garden. Dellbrook is leading construction with ERise Builders, a minority-owned firm, the city said.

By the numbers: comparing the two projects

Sources: City of Boston, Boston Agent Magazine; table: The Boston Report.

Both projects draw on Community Preservation Act money and MassHousing financing. Mission Hill Pathway also lists GrowBoston, Eastern Bank, the Property & Casualty Initiative, The Trustees, HousingWorks and Mass Save among its backers.

How this fits Boston’s housing debate

The openings come days before the Nov. 3 state election, when voters will decide Question 7 on single-family home zoning; we covered Mayor Wu’s endorsement of the Question 7 starter homes measure on Thursday. For other recent income-restricted ownership options near Boston, see our report on the Fisher Hill condo lottery in Brookline.

Chrystal Kornegay, chief executive of MassHousing, said in the Mission Hill announcement that turning “a vacant city lot into 48 brand new homes for purchase by moderate-income buyers” along with open space and commercial space “is a tremendous outcome for this property.”

Sources

• City of Boston: The City of Boston and Urban Edge Celebrate the Grand Opening of 59 Bartlett Station
• City of Boston: City Celebrates Groundbreaking on 48 Affordable Homes in Mission Hill
• City of Boston Metrolist: Bartlett F5 listing
• City of Boston: Mission Hill Pathway project page

Additional sources

• Boston Agent Magazine: 59 Bartlett Station Drive unveiled in Roxbury
• City of Boston: Housing projects in construction

Featured photo: Snutter, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (file photo of a view from Mission Hill toward downtown Boston).