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An exhaustive inventory of state properties identified more than three dozen sites totaling 450 acres that will be offered to multifamily housing developers.
The first 17 sites will be offered through a combination of auctions and requests for proposals, Healey administration officials announced this morning.
“We’re going to look to identify even more, but the goal is to build as many homes as quickly as possible using any method necessary,” Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Edward Augustus said following a developers’ conference in Boston.
Among the first sites hitting the market will be former courthouses in Lowell and Fitchburg, and parcels at 106 Hale St. on the Bridgewater State University campus and 210 Spring Road in Bedford at Middlesex Community College.
Auctions are scheduled in September for portions of the former Westboro State Hospital and the J.T. Berry Rehabilitation Center in North Reading.
The Affordable Homes Act eliminated some of the bureaucratic hurdles that previously required a multi-year disposition process for state-owned properties, Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance Commissioner Adam Baacke said.
In late 2025 and early 2026, the administration will begin the disposition process for the former MCI Concord state prison, where a local planning study is underway.
Others include the former Lowell Superior Court, 24 Cherry St. in Wenham, a parcel on Eastville Avenue in Oak Bluffs, and sites at the former Industrial School for Girls in Lancaster and the former Monson Developmental Center campus.
The Affordable Homes Act allows redevelopment at a density of at least four housing units per acre, overriding local zoning, Baacke said. Some projects may seek higher density in exchange for community benefits, he said. An announcement from Healey’s office said the state property being offered could generate around 3,500 new homes.
In February, the administration released a comprehensive housing plan that recommended selling off underutilized state-owned properties to housing developers.
Up to 10,000 housing units could be built on the preliminary list of properties, officials estimated at the time. The Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance had identified approximately 100 properties.
The MBTA separately has been accelerating its private development partnerships. Last August, the MBTA sought proposals for a large mixed-use development at the Alewife station and parking garage in Cambridge and announced plans for a similar approach at Anderson Regional Transportation Center in Woburn.
Lab developments at Massport’s 701 Congress St. in the Seaport District, the MBTA’s Riverside station in Newton and Massachusetts Department of Transportation parcel 25 on Boston’s Kneeland Street have been delayed significantly by the life science industry’s declining demand for real estate.
Plans for a large life science project at the Charles F. Hurley Building in Boston’s West End were scrapped in July 2024, as Healey announced plans to issue another request for proposals.
But the lab slump could create opportunities for housing developers to fill the void and increase production in Greater Boston, where prime development sites are pricey and hard to find.
The Hurley building disposition process will resume within a year, Baacke said.
