Supporters hope the hotel-to-housing conversion of the Comfort Inn at 900 Morrissey Blvd. will help alleviate the city’s homeless crisis. Image courtesy of The Community Builders and Pine Street Inn
Boston Planning & Development Agency directors approved the conversion of a Dorchester hotel into supportive housing and 82 apartments in a redevelopment of a Jamaica Plain paper supply company’s property.
The hotel-to-housing conversion of the Comfort Inn on Morrissey Boulevard will alleviate the city’s homeless crisis, supporters said, and provide social services currently lacking in the immediate neighborhood.
But District 3 City Councilor Frank Baker urged the BPDA to reject the $49 million project, saying the 900 Morrissey Blvd. location is inappropriate and could host former residents of the Roundhouse Suites hotel on Massachusetts Avenue, where Boston Medical Center recently ended an addiction treatment program.
“I’m not sure that type of person isn’t coming over to the Comfort Inn. For that reason and others I won’t get into, I’m in opposition to this,” Baker said.
The Community Builders Inc. is partnering with the Pine Street Inn as operator of the 57,106-square-foot facility, which will convert the hotel rooms into 99 compact living apartments. All of the apartments will be reserved for households earning 30 percent or less of median income, and preference will be given to people 62 or older.
Pine Street Inn President Lyndia Downie addressed comments about neighborhood safety, saying the majority of 911 calls from its facilities are related to medical issues.
The developers are seeking approval of a Chapter 121A tax abatement to offset costs. Funding sources will include low-income tax credits and financing from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development and Mayor’s Office of Housing.
In Jamaica Plain, owners of a BMS Paper & Market received approval for a $47 million project including 82 apartments and a restaurant. Two buildings ranging from 4 to 6 stories and totaling 155,311 square feet will be built on the 2-acre site at 3390 Washington St. including an expansion of the paper company and a 2-story podium garage. Twenty-three percent of the apartments will be income-restricted.
In South Boston, a planned expansion of the 88 Black Falcon terminal building for life science companies will be delayed amid decline in lab tenant demand.
The Davis Cos. also received approval in March 2021 to construct a 4-story, 327,000-square-foot addition to the former Army repair facility, which is leased from Massport.
At Thursday’s board meeting, Chris Chandor, a senior vice president of development at The Davis Cos., said tenant demand isn’t keeping up with a roughly 16 million-square-foot pipeline of lab development in the Boston area.
The project now will be broken up into two phases, beginning with rehabilitation of the existing building for labs, offices, industrial and R&D uses. Public improvements in the first phase will include a rooftop public observatory, and reconstruction of the Drydock Avenue and Black Falcon Avenue intersection.
The board also approved the PLAN: Mattapan study which authorizes construction of backyard additional dwelling units, and recommends mixed-use development in Mattapan Square, the River Street Shopping Center and along the Blue Hill Avenue and River Street corridors.
