Boston-based Mitchell Properties received a variance last week to build this 103-unit apartment building adjacent to the Jackson Square MBTA station in Jamaica Plain.
A mixed-income apartment building that’s part of a multimillion-dollar project to revitalize Boston’s Jackson Square has the go-ahead from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeal.
Boston-based Mitchell Properties received a variance Tuesday to build the 103-unit building, which will include 16,700 square feet of ground-floor retail. The 6-story building, located at 225 Centre St., will sit on a triangular piece of land adjacent to the MBTA’s Orange Line. It will include 35 units for low-income tenants.
The $50 million project is part of the first phase of the redevelopment of Jackson Square in Jamaica Plain into more than 400 apartments and condominiums, as well as retail and office space. The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved the project’s first phase in November. It entails five buildings, including construction of a 30,000-square-foot youth and family center, and a new 2-story Department of Youth and Services facility at 1542 Columbus Ave.
The Jackson Square redevelopment team consists of Mitchell Properties; Gravestar; Urban Edge and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp., two nonprofit community-based development groups; and the Hyde Square Task Force, a nonprofit group.
The apartment building needed a variance because it exceeds the 60-foot height limit in the area by 9 feet. Residents and representatives from several city councilors’ offices were at the Zoning Board hearing Tuesday to express their support.
Bart Mitchell, president of Mitchell Properties, said his firm has applied for state funding for the project and may know as early as this spring if the money will be available. The developer is seeking about $4 million from the state’s affordable housing funds.
The city already has committed $1.75 million in affordable housing money for the project and has submitted a proposal to the state to use $2 million in Community Development Action Grant funds for infrastructure improvements.
Construction of the building could start as early as this fall or next spring, depending on when the funding is awarded.
One complicating factor for the overall project is that the development team has to create new infrastructure, explained Richard Thal, executive director of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp., or JPNDC. Roads and sidewalks in the neighborhood were torn out 40 years ago to make way for a highway that would have run through parts of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville.
Thal added that the developers are hoping to launch a capital campaign late this year to collect funds for the $13 million youth and family center. The center is being developed by the JPNDC and Hyde Square Task Force.
“The Jackson Square development is a very exciting initiative,” Mitchell said.
