| Chelsea and Somerville will receive $300,000 apiece in grants to support redevelopment of public housing properties into mixed-income developments as part of the state’s Partnership to Expand Housing Opportunities.
The grants from the state Department of Housing and Community Development will support redevelopment of the Innes Apartments in Chelsea and Clarendon Hill Apartments in Somerville into a mixture of subsidized, workforce and market-rate housing units.
The cities’ housing authorities will enter partnerships with private developers to rebuild the complexes, preserving 312 public housing units and adding 534 market-rate and workforce units.
The Chelsea Housing Authority will partner with Joseph J. Corcoran Co., an affiliate of Corcoran Jennison, to redevelop the Innes Apartments into a new 320-unit mixed-income community. Joseph J. Corcoran Co. will replace on-site the existing 96 subsidized units, which serve low-income families, and develop an additional 224 market-rate housing units. The project is located one block from the Silver Line Gateway’s future Eastern Avenue station. DHCD’s $300,000 planning and predevelopment grant will fund design work, environmental assessment costs and predevelopment consulting costs. The Innes Apartments were originally built in 1950.
The Somerville Housing Authority will partner with Gate Residential, Preservation of Affordable Housing and the Somerville Community Corp. to redevelop the Clarendon Hill Apartments into a new 526-unit mixed-income community. The development partnership will replace the existing 216 subsidized units and develop an additional 254 market-rate housing units and 56 units of workforce housing. DHCD’s $300,000 planning and predevelopment grant will fund design work, environmental assessment costs, relocation planning and other predevelopment consulting costs. The Clarendon Hill Apartments were originally built in 1948.
“We are promoting housing growth by building local capacity, incentivizing smart growth and fostering collaborative development partnerships that serve the needs of residents of all income levels” Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash said in a statement.
DHCD is also making a second round of planning and predevelopment grants available to local housing authorities. The new grant round will commit a minimum of $250,000.
