The Asian Community Development Corp. and New Boston Development Partners want to develop a mix of over 300 market-rate and affordable condominiums and rental units on Parcel 24 in Chinatown.
Just about a year ago, a nonprofit community-based developer in Boston’s Chinatown emerged as the sole bidder for a piece of property near the future Rose Kennedy Greenway. State officials, however, have yet to designate a developer for the site.
The Asian Community Development Corp. and New Boston Development Partners submitted a proposal to develop a mix of over 300 market-rate and affordable condominiums and rental units on the property, known as Parcel 24, to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority last March.
Today, neighborhood activists are wondering about the fate of the proposed project on the parcel of land that was taken from residents more than four decades ago to make way for a Central Artery on-ramp.
Is a decision on the parcel expected soon?
“That’s a good question,” said Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, a grassroots community organization. “That’s what I’ve been asking.”
When contacted last week about Parcel 24, Mariellen Burns, the Turnpike Authority’s communications director, said, “We are still reviewing all proposals.” Burns declined to comment further because the selection process is ongoing.
Katherine Oh Roof, housing director for the Asian CDC, said that “negotiations are going well.”
“We’re optimistic that things are progressing as they should,” Roof told Banker & Tradesman.
Located on the east side of residential Chinatown toward the Southeast Expressway, Parcel 24 is a 70,000-square-foot plot of land that sits on Hudson Street. The Hudson and Albany Street area, just south of Kneeland Street, was once home to row houses and storehouses that were demolished by the state for the westbound ramp of the Massachusetts Turnpike Extension.
Neighborhood groups estimate that as many as 300 families lost their homes and that homeowners were compensated for only about a third of what their property was worth.
About three years ago, neighborhood activists began pushing to reclaim the site. In 2003, a bill sponsored by Rep. Salvatore DiMasi and Sen. Diane Wilkerson was filed demanding that the Turnpike Authority return the land to Chinatown for $1. Although the bill was never passed, community groups continued meeting and through a “community visioning process” came up with a plan for a vibrant mixed-income residential community for the site.
The Turnpike Authority and Boston Redevelopment Authority implemented many of the community’s development guidelines into a Request for Proposals for Parcel 24.
“There has been an extensive amount of community organizing behind this project,” said Roof.
‘Pushing the Bar’
Boston City Councilor Sam Yoon, a Dorchester resident who is the former housing director of the Asian CDC, said the development of Parcel 24 is significant because it provides a rare opportunity to develop housing and community space in a part of the city where developable land is scarce.
“It repairs a section of Chinatown’s fabric, and what used to be a 20-foot concrete wall that created a horrible edge to the neighborhood,” he said. “It will create a softer edge and access to whatever gets developed on its eastern side.”
Asked about the length of time it’s taken for a developer to be designated, Yoon said, “I think it has everything to do with the fact that it is public land and there was only one bid. If we are the chosen bidder, it has to be absolutely clear what the community benefit is and what the public purpose would be to designate a community-based team.”
Yoon also said he wasn’t concerned about the pace of negotiations. “Everything seems to be moving in the right direction. There’s strong anticipation that we will realize our dream,” he said.
In its proposal, the Asian CDC and New Boston Development Partners want to build a mix of 315 rental and condo units. The majority of the units – 200 – will include two bedrooms. Ninety-one will have one bedroom, and the rest will feature three bedrooms. Unit sizes will range from 612 square feet up to 1,200 square feet, said Roof.
All of the 70 rental units, which will be built through the Low Income Tax Credit program, will be for lower-income households. Of the condominiums, anywhere from 66 to 99 will be affordable to households earning an average 80 percent of the area median income, according to Roof. In total, more than half of the units will be affordable.
“We’re pushing the bar in terms of the amount of affordable units we can build at Parcel 24,” said Roof.
The exact number of below market-rate units depends largely on the strength of the residential real estate market.
“We’re relying on the market to subsidize the affordable units,” said Roof. “If the market does well, we’re able to sell the market-rate units; that means we have more money to put into the construction of the affordable units.”
As negotiations continue, some theorize that the price of the land has been one of the sticking points during the process.
“I can’t reveal much because [negotiations are] ongoing. We are offering a nominal sum,” for the land, said Roof. “It will be disclosed once everything is negotiated.”
Roof said that a lot of the negotiating has been “around clarification” of the financing that the development team plans to secure for the project.
“They’re [the Turnpike Authority] not familiar with the financing,” said Roof. “They’re not familiar with the Low Income Tax Credit and the various other public funds that are available to low-income housing providers.”
The project architect, Boston-based Goody Clancy, has designed a large-scale apartment building at Kneeland Street, the northern end of the site, that gradually steps down to smaller townhouses at the southern end of the site.
“We are pleased that the RFP reflected a lot of what the community wanted,” said the Chinese Progressive Association’s Lowe.
But Lowe said that the community believes the land should be returned for a $1. “This is land that’s publicly owned and was taken from the community,” Lowe said. Returning the land to the community “would allow us to maximize the amount of affordable units,” she said.
