Boston’s Jackson Square received a $3.4 million commitment from the Baker administration on Monday to support a 144-unit housing development that will include 72 affordable apartments and 2,400 square feet of retail space.
The MassWorks grant announced Monday at a ceremony with Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will fund infrastructure in the area around the Orange Line, including new pedestrian walkways and bike paths linked to the subway station, sewer line improvements and a 3,000 square-foot “community plaza.”
The grant is expected to “unlock” Jackson Square Partners’ $62.6 million development of two mixed-use properties in Roxbury bordering Jamaica Plain.
Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh arrived at a MassWorks grant award ceremony in Boston on Monday with Boston Chief of Economic Development John Barros and state Department of Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Chrystal Kornegay.
The project will also create a new road, Walsh said. He said the sewer line improvements would have benefits stretching beyond the immediate area of the development.
Speaking in a parking lot where Orange Line trains roared by, Baker said a “scar was torn through the neighborhood some 30 or 40 years ago,” and the MassWorks grants benefit areas by “stitching and knitting together opportunity and promise.”
Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, told the News Service that the area was all “big old abandoned lots” after “urban destruction” – otherwise known as urban renewal – cleared out a neighborhood.
Sanchez said redevelopment of the area began in the mid-1990s. The Republican governor discussed how he had visited the neighborhood, which heavily supports Democrats, during his campaign for governor, where he narrowly defeated Democrat Martha Coakley.
“You came out here more than – let’s just say you came out here a lot,” Sanchez said.
Kornegay, who used to head up Urban Edge, told the News Service some consider the area to be part of Jamaica Plain, not Roxbury.
As a partnership of The Community Builders, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp., Urban Edge and Hyde Square Task Force, the project will create 44 affordable apartments in one building and 100 mixed-income apartments in a second building, according to an information sheet.
“This is nothing short of a miracle,” said Rep. Liz Malia, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, who said it would not have been possible without the support of MassWorks.
Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash said this year’s MassWorks awards total about $90 million.
