(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Governor Deval Patrick spoke at a ceremony announcing city,
state, and federal support for a 345-unit mixed-income housing development to be
constructed in Chinatown.
By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent
An empty lot on the edge of Chinatown, once a vibrant section of brick
rowhouses and small businesses, will soon be reborn as a mixed-income
development the governor says will double the number of affordable housing units
in the neighborhood.
Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas Menino led a ceremony Monday morning
to herald the development and announce $10 million in city and state funds and
an additional $3 million in state and federal tax credits for the project. The
state and federal support is part of a package of $64.5 million for this and 24
other projects across Massachusetts.
“With a variety of city, state, and federal supports alongside private
financing, this project will provide a new space for residents of Chinatown to
live, work, and play, doubling the number of affordable housing units in
Chinatown and creating some 700 construction jobs while we’re at it,” Patrick
said.
Patrick said cooperation was the key to making the new development a reality.
“We are working together, here in this commonwealth, across government lines,
between the government and the private sector, with neighborhood groups and
others, to invest in education, in innovation, and in infrastructure projects
just like this because we believe we have to be about shaping our future,” he
said. “Not just waiting for better times, but building them right now.”
The empty lot, which sits east of Hudson Street below Kneeland, was
designated by the state as Parcel 24 during the Big Dig. The land had previously
contained blocks of housing occupied by a diverse community of Chinese, Syrian,
and Lebanese immigrants, 300 of whom were displaced when the state took the land
in 1962 for construction of a ramp connecting to the Central Artery.
City Councilor Bill Linehan, State Representative Aaron Michlewitz, and State
Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz also attended the ceremony, standing alongside Richard
A. Davey, Massachusetts secretary of transportation, and Nancy Brennan,
executive director of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, which
manages the parks constructed across most of the other land when where the
Central Artery once stood. More than 100 Chinatown residents and others also
attended.
The Parcel 24 development is a joint venture between the
Asian Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit serving the local
Asian-American community, and New Boston Fund Inc., a real estate investment
company.
Michael Tow, president of the board of the community development corporation,
recalled hearing as a young boy at his grandmother’s knee of the family’s life
at 72 Hudson St. before their home and others were demolished. She told stories
of a close-knit community where her sons happily played games like kick-the-can
and where she could stand at her window to watch them walk to school each
morning.
“However, more often than not, these stories would end with some reference to
that terrible day when the families of the even-numbered side of the street got
that notice posted on their doors,” Tow said. “The injustices that occurred, the
gross mispricing of value to homeowners, the unimaginable short time frame to
relocate, the taking advantage of a lack of representation and community voice,
and the steamrolling of due process.”
Tow recalled visiting the neighborhood in his childhood, when his great-uncle
and great-aunt still lived across the street at 79 Hudson St.
“What was once a thriving and lively community [was replaced with] beer cans
and trash and abandoned furniture, and all kinds of waste and debris in front of
a huge, graffitied, dirty, crumbling concrete wall that stood as high as the
homes all across the street, that imprisoned the community and our street,” he
said. “Now I’m not an expert on feng shui, but having a nasty concrete wall in
front of your house can’t be good chi.”
Tow said that he was proud to be part of the community development
corporation and the effort to return the east side of Hudson Street to the
community, calling it a “truly transformative project.”
The development will contain 200 market-rate apartments, 50 affordable
condominiums, and 95 affordable apartments, 10 of which will be set aside for
families transitioning out of homelessness. It will also include 5,500 square
feet of ground-floor retail, 6,000 square feet of community space, and a
courtyard of about 13,600 square feet.
Menino said the project was the result of the city, state, and private
developers coming together toward a common goal and that “today we have a
project that we can all be proud of.”
“Right here today, we’re going to create 95 affordable units, create
construction jobs,” Menino said. “That’s what we’re all about: creating more
jobs in our community, creating more affordable units also.”
The $130 million Chinatown development will receive $6.5 million in state
funds, $2 million in federal low-income-housing tax credits, $1 million in state
tax credits, and $3.5 million in city funds. Construction on the first phase of
the two-building development is scheduled to begin next spring and expected to
be complete by 2014.
Email Jeremy C. Fox at
jeremycfox@gmail.com.
.
(Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com)
Mayor Thomas M. Menino spoke as Janelle Chan, executive
director of the Asian Community Development Corporation; Governor Deval Patrick;
Kirk Sykes, president of the Urban Strategy America Fund; Michael Tow, president
of ACDC’s board; and community members looked on.
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