iStock photo

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s push to turn empty, city-owned lots into housing reached its first major milestone Thursday when the mayor designated four development teams to transform 14 parcels into around 63 units of affordable for-sale housing.

African Community Economic Development Organization of New England (ACEDONE), Boston Communities, Dorchester Design Collaborative and Norfolk Design and Construction will now dive into a period of collaboration with city officials to finalize their design and financing plans before submitting projects to the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s Article 80 development review process. All four are either minority-, woman- or military veteran-owned.

Each builder, Wu’s office said, has pledged to build all-electric, LEED Gold-certifiable buildings.

“By creating new affordable homes on formerly vacant City-owned land with development teams reflecting the talent and diversity of our communities, we’re delivering on a mission to make Boston the best city for families through building community in our neighborhoods,”Wu said in a statement. “I’m excited to welcome these four development teams and look forward to their partnership.”

The 14 parcels in this first phase of Wu’s “Welcome Home, Boston” initiative are scattered across Dorchester’s Bowdoin-Geneva and Franklin Field North sections and are largely properties the city seized over the years due to tax delinquency or gained ownership over through other means.

Once the 14 lots are built on, the city will help buyers – who must make no more than 80 percent to100 percent of area median income – buy down their mortgage rates and up to $50,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance through The Boston Home Center’s First Time Homebuyer program, the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance’s Saving Toward Affordable Sustainable Homeownership (STASH) program and the ONE+Boston program, a joint effort of the city, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership and a number of area banks.

“This initiative is a testament to the collaborative efforts that underscore our mission to make homeownership accessible to all. I’m proud of our selected developers who will play a crucial role in shaping the future of Dorchester and the broader community, as we continue to build a more equitable and prosperous Boston,” city Chief of Housing Sheila Dillon said in a statement.

In addition, developers are getting direct help through the state’s new CommonWealth Builder program, which subsidizes construction of home ownership units so that they can be offered at prices comparable to traditional affordable housing units, but without the long-term deed restrictions that have typically prevented the owners of affordable units from realizing the same equity gains that owners of market-rate homes do. The program is administered by MassHousing.

“The demand for high-quality homes to purchase in communities of color is strong, and MassHousing is pleased to partner with the city of Boston to produce new homeownership opportunities for working households where market forces have historically failed to produce those opportunities, reinforcing the racial homeownership gap,” MassHousing CEO Chrystal Kornegay said in a statement provided by Wu’s office. “Every opportunity is important, and we are excited to use the CommonWealth Builder program and other resources to help transform these vacant parcels into new, moderately priced homes where people of color can sink down roots, strengthen neighborhoods and start to accumulate wealth from owning homes that will eventually be passed onto future generations.”

At the same time it announced the four development teams, Wu’s office said it was releasing an RFP for the next 26 parcels in the 150-parcel Welcome Home, Boston program.