Officials celebrated construction on the Quincy Street Corridor redevelopment project Thursday, marking the end to years of work by the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp. and the start of redevelopment funded by a new federal grant program.
Mayor Tom Menino and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan were on hand for the celebration on Quincy Street in Dorchester, the epicenter of the project.
Over $20 million towards redevelopment was provided by the first-ever HUD Choice Neighborhoods grant, a program which is meant to help fuel the transformation of distressed neighborhoods by focusing on high-quality, mixed income housing, citizen services, and increased neighborhood amenities.
Altogether, the Choice Neighborhoods grant program distributed $122 million dollars in funding to five cities nationwide, including Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco and Seattle.
The majority of Boston’s grant will go towards the renovation of the 129 overcrowded and run-down apartments which make up the Quincy Heights housing development. The Dorchester EDC has been working on funding the apartment project for over six years, according to a press release.
But perhaps the most notable project is the redevelopment of the former Pearl Meat Factory, which was purchased by the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp. (EDC) in 2009.The EDC has partnered with the CropCircle Kitchen, Inc. to transform the two-acre site into a shared-use and multi-tenant food production facility.
Once the project is completed in spring 2014, it is projected to support over 50 food production businesses and create more than 150 new jobs within the first three years of operation, according to an EDC press release.
No mention was made of plans for a culinary arts training center that was proposed in July 2011. The EDC and Boston Department of Neighborhood Development did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
The $14 million project is one of seven neighborhood transformation projects that will receive $3.1 million jointly from the Choice grant. An additional $17 million in funding and loans has been leveraged from over a dozen other groups.
Other projects which will be splitting the $3 million in HUD funding are renovations to the Haynes Early Education Center and King School K-8 play lots; expansion of the neighborhood’s WiFi; and a business façade improvement program.
Although the majority of construction officially commenced with Thursday’s ceremony, construction on the Quincy Heights apartments began in July 2013. In accordance with the project’s goals of job development for residents, 40 percent of the work is being performed by minority owned businesses and over 60 percent of the workers are minority. Construction on the apartments is expected to be completed in December 2014.
The entire Choice Neighborhoods construction project is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.
