Mildred Hailey (Bromley Heath) BHA Redevelopment | Jackson Square | Jamaica Plain

Scipio

Scipio

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The Boston Housing Authority is once again seeking a private partner to rehabilitate a dated housing project. Like One Charlestown, the partner's interest comes from adding a significant number of market rate units to what is now an exclusively affordable community. In this case there are 804 public housing units that will be replaced, and the Boston Housing Authority expects that about twice that number of market rate units will be created on the site. An RFP for this project went out on Wednesday.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/02/22/developing-story/fq1zBxrfxy1uxG0dHQu0wL/story.html

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Phase 1A and 1B? How about 1 and 2?

Not all of the buildings are the same. It looks like some have been rehabbed over the years (the ones with the green accents and sloped roofs) and there's at least 1 completed "new" building at the corner of Parker and Bickford.
 
This is a better location than One Charlestown. It's right next to the orange line while one Charlestown would only be served by buses or a mile walk to community station.
 
tysmith95 said:
This is a better location than One Charlestown. It's right next to the orange line while one Charlestown would only be served by buses or a mile walk to community station.
Click to expand...

True from a transit perspective, but market units at One Charlestown would surely command more $.
 
tysmith95 said:
This is a better location than One Charlestown. It's right next to the orange line while one Charlestown would only be served by buses or a mile walk to community station.
Click to expand...

Also a short walk to the E. I would say I would agree One Charlestown would command way more $ - Bromley-Heath definitely still has a stigma.
 
Sounds very promising. Calling these projects "dated" is only scratching the surface. They're deplorable, depressing, poorly laid out, and not really all that dense. Tripling the density and a 1:1 replacement on afforable units is a good start. I wish it was more aggressive on both fronts, but I'll take it. I hope there will be some retail layered in.
 
Centre Street Partners (a joint venture between JPNDC, Urban Edge, & The Community Builders) was designated as the re-developer for the complex last year.

Plan is to demo the whole complex, build 625 units, 250 which replace the existing, so a net increase of about 375 units. Parking for 340 cars (!), new street grid, buildings fronting Centre Street, etc.

Here's their December 2018 presentation to the JP Neighborhood Council with a bunch of diagrams:

MCHA-rendering-4-17-800-px.jpg
 
Lots of new housing. Agree that bigger with more market rate (so more mixed income) would be good, but let's get this built!
 
Urbanism and design is an A+. And I like that there is no reduction in affordable units. I do question why they couldent have put a few high rises on some of the interior lots? I wonder if its a local politics thing or a cost of construction thing?
 
BPDA approved. UHub article.
www.universalhub.com

Board approves initial Mildred Hailey rebuild, will include replacement of 253 existing public-housing units, creation of 420 new apartments in Jackson Square

The BPDA board today approved plans by developers to raze several buildings at the sprawling Mildred Hailey Apartments complex in Jamaica Plain and replace their current 253 Section 8 apartments with all new units - and add 420 additional income-restricted apartments and an all new street grid...
www.universalhub.com www.universalhub.com
 
Great news for the current residents and the hundreds of new units that will also come on line. I'm also quite excited by the extension of LaMartine St. to Heath St. I missed that when I first skimmed the PNF.
 
This will really uplift that end of Centre St. Hmm...maybe I should look into buying that condo close by on Lamartine. More importantly it will give the current residents a decent place to call home. I'm a teacher and once did a home visit to a student who lived there; it's much worse on the inside than its outward appearance.
 
Such a great project. This type of development is far more important to Boston than something like the Winthrop Square tower, because this is actually creating more urban space.

It goes without saying that this will be a great boon for the immediate Jackson Square area, but I also think it will help make Boston's urban core/CBD feel bigger. I suspect most people would say that the core stops around the Fenway/Longwood area, and I would suggest that this is because Mission Hill is just an absolute disaster in terms of connectivity. It's a mess of dead ends, suburban style housing projects, and anti-urban institutional buildings like the two hospitals. Jackson Square and Northern JP really aren't that far from the Gardner Museum or MFA, but no one would ever want to make that walk.

This project alone won't fix that, of course, but by restoring the grid and connecting Heath St to Centre, it's an important step in the right direction. If we can do something similar with the shopping center/projects next door, along with the plots behind the police HQ, then we'll be cooking.
 
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