Image courtesy of The Architectural Team

A partnership between the Archdiocese of Boston’s affordable housing arm and Boston-based J. Garland Enterprises won the rights to develop 217 housing units at the publicly-owned Crescent parcel in Nubian Square.

Boston Planning & Development Agency directors designed Drexel Village LLC as preferred developer from three finalists that submitted proposals for the latest in a series of surplus property dispositions in the Roxbury neighborhood.

The Drexel Village team struck an agreement with St. Catherine Drexel Parish to ground-lease its neighboring property, enabling the development to retain 1.5 acres of open space while constructing a pair of 10- and 6-story buildings for the housing development. The site combines the two-thirds-acre parish property with the 1.5-acre Crescent parcel at the corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Tremont Street.

Drexel Village is a partnership between the Archdiocese’s Planning Office of Urban Affairs and Boston-based J. Garland Enterprises, a minority-owned business enterprise founded in 2018 by Jonathan Garland, a former associate principal at DREAM Collaborative.

The proposal includes 150 affordable units for a range of household incomes, with an average maximum 80 percent of area median income, and 31,000 square feet of community space.

The team’s plans also seek to protect residents from effects of urban heat islands. The buildings would be topped with white membrane roofs to minimize heat absorption, and developers will plant 65 trees while preserving the 35 existing trees on the site.

The next step for developers is submitting plans for review under the BPDA’s Article 80 approval process.