Image courtesy of HYM Investment Group
Suffolk Downs is one of the largest construction projects in Boston history, and developers are partnering with a Roxbury organization to ensure that it will be welcoming to a diverse workforce.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled this morning at the 161-acre site, where a 500,000-square-foot biomanufacturing facility is under construction near the MBTA’s Beachmont station in Revere. Construction also is starting on a 280,000-square-foot lab building and 475-unit housing complex.
The total 16.5 million-square-foot buildout over more than a decade will generate an estimated 14,000 construction jobs. Building Pathways, a Roxbury training organization, will play a key role in supplying a pipeline of its graduates into union apprenticeship programs.
And in a first for the Boston construction industry, Boston-based mediators MWI will serve in an ombuds role to review workplace complaints.
“We will be bringing respect, inclusion and equity to Suffolk Downs, making sure workers and managers have a workplace that is welcoming, safe and productive,” Building Pathways Executive Director Mary Vogel said this week. “It’s groundbreaking for having a cultural change in our industry so that it’s more welcoming to diverse workers.”
Women now represent over 10 percent of participants in union apprenticeship programs statewide, Vogel said, including those who have graduated from the organization’s training programs from the South Shore to western Massachusetts.
The attention to workplace cultural issues is an element of the project labor agreement signed between developers and local trade unions in 2020. An access and opportunity committee will meet regularly to monitor compliance with workplace diversity goals, Vogel said.
Developers also are donating $1 million to Building Pathways to support its training programs, which consist of 200 hours of instruction for residents of underserved communities.
The 16.5 million-square-foot Suffolk Downs racetrack property redevelopment, whose 10,000 multifamily units represent the largest single housing project in the city’s history, also is approved for 5.2 million-square-feet of life science and commercial space, and 450,000-square-feet of retail and hotel space. JLL is the leasing agent for the life science facilities.
Developers HYM, National Real Estate Advisors and Houston-based investor Cathexis agreed to include 900 income-restricted units on-site amid pressure from former Boston city councilor and now-state Sen. Lydia Edwards, along with a $5 million stabilization fund for off-site affordable housing amid rapidly-rising housing costs in East Boston.
