Officials pose for a photo at the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Innes Apartments redevelopment in Chelsea on Oct. 19, 2022. Courtesy photo
City officials, representatives from Cambridge Savings Bank and developers from Marcus Partners, Joseph J. Corcoran Co. and John M. Corcoran & Co. broke ground Wednesday afternoon on a redevelopment of a Chelsea public housing project.
The eight-building Innes Apartments, built in the 1950s and suffering from deterioration that the Chelsea Housing Authority said it could not afford to repair, will be torn down and replaced with a mixed-income project that replaces the public housing units one-for-one and adds 40 units of new middle-income-priced units and 194 market-rate apartments. Similar redevelopment efforts are underway in places like Boston, which is seeking to replace its Bunker Hill public housing project in Charlestown and Mary Ellen McCormack and Old Colony public housing projects in South Boston with mixed-income communities that preserve the city’s total count of affordable units.
The Chelsea site is steps from the Eastern Avenue station on the MBTA’s Silver Line, and has been zoned under the state’s 40R transit-oriented development program.
“Today’s groundbreaking is the culmination of years of collaboration and hard work. However, this celebration is just the beginning of new lives for our residents and future generations of people who depend on the Chelsea Housing Authority,” said Al Ewing, executive director of the Chelsea Housing Authority. “I am proud of the team we put together who put our residents first and equally proud of the dedication and commitment of our residents who spent countless hours advocating for themselves and their neighbors to ensure these new homes will meet their needs – the stewardship of this team will be an example for generations to come.”
The project’s total cost is expected to hit $155 million, with funding provided in part by lead lender Cambridge Savings Bank, Eastern Bank, Harbor One Bank, the state Department of Housing and Community Development, a state Mass Works grant to improve stormwater and utility connections to the site and a tax increment financing agreement with the city of Chelsea.
Current Innes residents are being relocated for the duration of construction, and are expected to be able to move into the new development in 2024.
