Related Beal and DREAM Development propose 402 units of affordable and workforce housing on the site of the Boston Water & Sewer Commission's parking lots in Roxbury. Image courtesy of Related Beal and Dream Development

Developer Related Beal received approval to move forward with projects on city-owned properties in South Boston and Roxbury that could include more than 400 housing units and nearly 320,000 square feet of lab space.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency designated Related Beal and Dream Development as its choice to build a mixed-income housing project on the Boston Water and Sewer Commission parking lots on Harrison Avenue in Roxbury. The team was one of two that responded to the city’s offer to lease the property under a surplus property disposition program launched by Mayor Michelle Wu in 2022. Another major housing project is planned on Austin Street parking lots in Charlestown, where Boston-based Trinity Financial plans to build 686 income-restricted apartments and condos.

The board’s vote on Thursday enables Related Beal and Dream Development to move forward with a formal proposal for the 4.4-acre Roxbury site. In their reply to a request for proposals, the two firms proposed 323 apartments and 79 condominiums, including units reserved for seniors and first-time homebuyers, in five buildings totaling 490,000 square feet. The plans retain over an acre of open space including a 25,000-square-foot central green.

In South Boston’s Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park, a team including Related Beal is set to begin construction of a new research center for Vertex Pharmaceuticals at 20 and 22 Drydock Ave.

Related Beal, Kavanaugh Advisory Group and Boston Real Estate Inclusion Fund (BREIF) are planning to break ground this summer on the 319,750-square-foot building which is preleased to Vertex. The BPDA approved the final developer designation to the group for the parcel, which is owned by the Economic Development Industrial Corp. of Boston.

BREIF, a group of local minority-owned developers, announced this month that it is seeking investors through the Small Change crowdfunding platform. The campaign has raised $800,000 thus far toward its $1.5 million minimum goal, according to the site.

First Squares+Streets Rezoning OK’d

At the monthly board meeting, the BPDA board also approved five developments totaling 1.9 million square feet and the first rezoning under its Squares+Streets program to encourage multifamily housing near transit and neighborhood centers.

The Mattapan Squares+Streets district creates new zoning for neighborhoods including Mattapan Square, Blue Hill Avenue, Cummins Highway and Greenfield Street and the area around the Morton Street MBTA commuter rail station.

The new zoning districts simplify and update the requirements for land uses and building dimensions, while allowing building heights up to 65 feet in some areas closest to transit and business centers.

Core Investments’ On the Dot project in South Boston received approval for three office and lab buildings at 65 and 75 Ellery St. and 505 Dorchester Ave. The BPDA board approved a 3.8 million-square-foot master plan for the 21-acre site in October, including 1,460 housing units.

The buildings approved this week include a pair of 13-story towers on Ellery Street and a 12-story building at 505 Dorchester Ave.

Multifamily projects totaling 254 units were approved for properties in the Financial District and Dorchester.

In the second downtown office-to-residential conversion project approved this spring, KS Partners will convert an 11-story office building at 85 Devonshire St. into 95 apartments.

In Uphams Corner, a vacant parcel will be redeveloped as 21 income-restricted condos, including 18 artist live-work units. Another Dorchester project at 115-121 Boston St. received approval for 90 apartments, including 15 income-restricted units, by developers Adam Burns and John Beatty. Another 48 apartments were approved for a site at 749-759 Dudley St. and 2 Virginia St., replacing a pair of commercial buildings, in a project by developers Mark and Stuart Salzberg.