The 240-unit Charlesview Residences in Allston.
The Charlesview Residences and The Town Homes at Brighton Mills in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston were selected as recipients of the 2015 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Housing Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award. The award, announced earlier this month, honors developments that ensure housing affordability for people with a range of incomes.
The $143 million Charlesview Residences, co-developed by The Community Builders Inc. (TCB) and Charlesview Inc., has transformed the landscape of Lower Allston and replaced the 213-unit Charlesview Apartments. The new 240-unit development features pedestrian walkways, a 10,000-square-foot community center and 15,000 square feet of retail space, including a Spanish-immersion preschool and two restaurants.
“The original Charlesview Apartments were borne out of the struggle to preserve affordable workforce housing during the time of urban renewal,” Rev. Frank Glynn, board chairman of Charlesview Inc., said in a statement. “The new Charlesview Residences is an expansion of that original mission.”
The project was made possible by the transfer of the Housing Assistance Payments subsidy and an innovative land-swap with Harvard University. Harvard had long been interested in the original site on 51 Stadium Way near the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue in Allston. The deal was struck more nearly five years ago; the residents were relocated when the new site was finished last year.
“One of the most impressive elements of this project was the developer’s partnership with a major university, which is the type of approach that would work in many other communities,” Linda Mandolini, president, Eden Housing, Kemp Award juror and previous award winner, said in a statement.
The new development also includes the Town Homes at Brighton Mills, so named for site on which it stands. Half of the 20 units are reserved for families earning 100 percent of area median income (AMI) and half are for families earning 80 percent of AMI.
“TCB is honored to win the prestigious ULI Jack Kemp Award,” Eliza Datta, vice president of development at TCB New England, said in a statement. “We’re committed to preserving and developing high-quality housing for people of all incomes.”
ULI established the Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award in 2008, naming it in memory of Jack Kemp, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ULI Twerlinger Center national advisory board member. The award is given annually to affordable and workforce housing developments that represent outstanding achievements in several areas, including affordability, innovative financing and building technologies, proximity to employment centers and transportation hubs, quality of design, involvement of public/private partnerships, and replicability of the development, among other criteria.
