Urban Edge, a Roxbury-based community development corporation, is demolishing a vacant garage and this abandoned theatre on Washington Street near Egleston Square to make way for 64 affordable rental units.

Expecting to continue the transformation of a once-blighted urban section of Boston, neighborhood activists and city leaders will gather this Saturday to celebrate the groundbreaking of a 64-unit housing development.

A vacant garage and an abandoned movie theatre on Washington Street in Roxbury’s Egleston Square will be demolished and replaced with two buildings featuring 64 apartments. The new housing will be rented to people earning less than $43,000 a year.

Known as Egleston Crossing, the $17.5 million project is just the latest chapter in the almost 30-year history of Urban Edge, one of the state’s largest nonprofit community development corporations.

Concentrating on the revitalization of Jackson Square and Egleston Square at the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury border, Urban Edge started out as a grassroots community organization in Jamaica Plain in 1974 and has grown into a major player and real estate developer with over $100 million in real estate assets.

With 84 employees, the organization currently manages more than 1,000 apartments located in 17 developments and 64,000 square feet of commercial space in six buildings.

In coming years, Urban Edge will be working with other groups on at least nine other projects that could produce as many as 574 housing units, about 175,000 square feet of commercial and retail space and 100,000 square feet of community space.

And throughout the years, Urban Edge has expanded beyond its traditional Jamaica Plain and Roxbury territory to develop housing in nearby neighborhoods like Mattapan, Dorchester and Roslindale.

“They’re viewed as one of the strongest neighborhood-based organizations in the region if not the country,” said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association. “They’ve been leaders in affordable housing for the city and have been tenacious in acquiring and renovating properties to improve the neighborhood.”

The organization’s growth has presented some challenges. As they rapidly grow and expand their assets, groups like Urban Edge often confront a tricky balancing act – staying true to their community roots while at the same being productive and self-sufficient.

Almost five years ago, Urban Edge came under attack for supporting a plan to open a K-Mart store on state-owned land at Centre Street and Columbus Avenue near the Jackson Square stop on the MBTA’s Orange Line. At the time, leaders of another neighborhood group in Hyde Square criticized Urban Edge, saying in a published newspaper article that the CDC was trying “to destroy the quality of life in Hyde/Jackson Square.”

Those sorts of disputes are almost inevitable as CDCs like Urban Edge lead significant neighborhood planning efforts, according to some observers.

“They [CDCs] don’t want to become so big and oriented around the development that they become disconnected from the community,” said Joseph Kriesberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations.

Kriesberg said Urban Edge has done a good job of taking development fees and income from projects and recycling them into other projects. As community development corporations battle for dwindling public resources, “it’s more and more important to achieve that earned income,” he said.

“The key is that they [Urban Edge] have the capacity to do complicated projects. They have the capacity to do multiple projects simultaneously but they retain a connection to the community,” said Kriesberg.

Supporters of Urban Edge credit the organization for revitalizing urban areas that were once plagued by crime and boarded-up buildings. Throughout its history, the group has been recognized by dozens of organizations.

CHAPA honored Urban Edge in 1998 for helping a tenant group at Academy Homes I, an apartment development in Jackson Square. Urban Edge acquired, renovated and preserved the development as affordable housing.

“They’ve shown dedication and commitment over many, many years and have an impressive track record,” said Gornstein.

Egleston Crossing is just one of the projects that has come to symbolize Urban Edge’s dedication to breathing new life into the neighborhood, supporters say.

The project, which involves the redevelopment of neglected buildings, will create long-term and short-term jobs, provide housing for low-income individuals and families – including formerly homeless people – and provide economic development opportunities and services to residents.

“Here’s a case where a CDC project achieved so many different objectives and goals,” said Kriesberg.

Answering the Critics

Over several months, Urban Edge met with neighborhood advocates, including the parishioners of nearby Grace and Hope Mission, along with the Egleston Square Main Streets and Merchants’ Association, to discuss development plans for Egleston Crossing.

Urban Edge wanted to demolish the garage at 3033 Washington St. and the Beethoven Street Theater at 3089 Washington St. and construct two four-story buildings featuring 30 units at each site. But neighbors resisted the construction of a four-story building at the site of the former theater, saying that the building would be too high.

“Beethoven Street is more residential so we wanted to build something that’s more in scale,” said Mossik Hacobian, executive director of Urban Edge.

The final plan calls for the construction of a five-story building at the site of the old garage, featuring 44 rental units and 8,300 square feet of ground-floor retail space, and a three-story building with 20 units at the theater site.

“That’s an example of what changes can occur as a result of engaged community dialogue,” said Hacobian. “We have our detractors. There will be people who criticize us no matter what we do. But there were quite a few people in the community who were very engaged and very reasonable, and … I think it will be a project that will transform the square. This is going to have a major impact on what Egleston Square looks like.”

To be sure, some residents were very troubled by the vacant buildings. The garage has been deemed a “problem property” by a neighborhood task force and the theater, which hadn’t operated for over four decades, is not only an eyesore but, some fear, a safety hazard for the neighborhood’s children.

“We’re anxious for anything that is going to make this area a better one,” said Estelle Clasing, the pastor of Grace and Hope Mission, located at 1900 Columbus Ave. near the site.

Fifteen of the units in the 20-unit building will be set aside for formerly homeless people. The city of Boston requires that 10 percent of the units in any residential project receiving city or state funding be set aside for homeless individuals and families. The Pine Street Inn will screen possible tenants and make recommendations to Urban Edge.

In addition, Pine Street will hire a full-time case manager, who will have an onsite office and apartment, to provide support services to the residents, whether it be linking them to medical or psychiatric care or helping them retain other types of services.

“Some people [tenants] will be working full-time and will need very little or no support services. But the case manager will still be available to them,” explained Ralph Hughes, director of permanent housing for Pine Street Inn.

Hughes said prospective tenants of the 15 units have to be homeless, earn less than 30 percent of the area median income – which translates into less than $16,000 a year for individuals – and either have a disability or be 62 years old or older.

This is the first time that Pine Street Inn is collaborating with an organization on a permanent housing project with support services for homeless people, but it is a similar model that Pine Street has employed at housing it has developed on its own.

“We were very excited when they [Urban Edge] approached us and very much wanted to do [the project],” said Hughes.

The sites will require environmental remediation before demolition and construction can begin.

“The garage building had two very old gasoline tanks buried underneath, one of which had leaked into the soil, and the theatre building has asbestos that had to be removed before the demolition can begin,” said Hacobian.

About 700 of the units that Urban Edge manages are concentrated in a quarter-mile area off Columbus Avenue in the Roxbury and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods. But in addition to Jackson and Egleston squares, Urban Edge has developed housing in bordering Boston neighborhoods.

For example, Urban Edge developed eight condominiums in Roslindale’s Hyde Square. The group is also in discussion with Southwest Boston CDC, a newly formed organization in Roslindale, to develop a parcel on Rowe Street in Roslindale that is owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority into condominiums.

When asked whether Urban Edge is expanding into new territory, Hacobian is almost amused at the suggestion. “It’s not that we’re expanding,” said Hacobian. “Whether you want to say we are expanding or not, the other way to look at it is when you build a community-based capacity that you do development, at a certain point, you can say ‘Well we can’t do anymore in this neighborhood, therefore, we should stop functioning.’ Or [you can say] ‘How can we apply this capacity in a way that makes sense, and if we’re working in a different neighborhood where we can bring value to, in this case a new CDC that’s forming, how can we collaborate to both produce the housing, make good use of our capacity and help Southwest Boston CDC get off the ground?'”

He added, “We’re interested in applying our capacity productively to create and preserve affordable housing in and around the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury neighborhoods. If that means we can play a role in producing housing in Roslindale by working with Southwest Boston [CDC], we’re prepared to do that. If they can do it otherwise, we’re prepared to support them.”