Staff photo by Steve Adams
Cambridge-based nonprofit Just-a-Start’s mission includes creation of affordable housing and hosting career training programs to improve economic opportunity.
The most ambitious building project in the agency’s 55-year history, the Economic Mobility Hub at Rindge Commons, will house both elements under one roof.
On Thursday, crews from general contractor Dellbrook|JKS topped off the new 70,000-square-foot building under construction at 40 Rindge Ave. in the city’s Alewife section. Along with two stories of affordable housing, the project will include life science training programs in a section of Cambridge that has emerged as a secondary industry hub to Kendall Square.
The Davis Cos. and IQHQ Inc., a pair of developers that are active in Alewife lab development, contributed to Just-a-Start’s capital campaign, which has raised $3.8 million toward its $4.25 million goal, Just-a-Start Executive Director Carl Nagy-Koechlin said at Thursday’s ceremony.
The facility will enable Just-a-Start to triple the capacity of its career training programs for biomedical and information technology, Nagy-Koechlin said. The lower levels also will include a woodworking shop for the agency’s YouthBuild program, and four early childhood education classrooms for the city of Cambridge’s Department of Human Service Programs.
The Economic Mobility Hub is being built on a portion of the parking lot for the 402 Rindge Ave. housing tower, which contains 273 apartments and has been owned by Just-a-Start since 1997.
The property is located a short distance from the 26-acre GCP Applied Technologies campus, which IQHQ Inc. is redeveloping as life science space after acquiring it in 2020 for $125 million.
In March, The Davis Cos. topped off its own newest life science project in Alewife, a 161,616-square-foot lab building known at 101 Smith Place scheduled for completion by the end of 2023. The project is part of the Boston developer’s nearly 10-acre life science campus known as The Quad.
Designed by Icon Architecture, the Economic Mobility Hub will include 24 apartments on the upper floors reserved for households earning a maximum 30 and 60 percent of area median income. Tenant selection for the affordable units will begin this fall, said Noah Sawyer, Just-a-Start’s director of real estate.
Top donations to the project include $500,000 apiece by IQHQ and the Massachusetts Life Science Center.
