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June 10, 2004

CDCs now agree on Jackson Sq. merger

Jeremy Schwab

The community development corporations Urban Edge and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, once seen as potential competitors to build on six-and-a-half-acres of public land adjacent to the Jackson Square MBTA station, now hope to develop the land together.

The groups announced their partnership during a press conference Tuesday.

While a request for proposals on the land is not expected to be released by the Boston Redevelopment Authority until this summer, the two groups already have their sights on the stretch of vacant property from Amory St. across Centre St. and along Columbus Ave.

Each CDC brings its own strengths to the table.

Both groups have been building below-market-rate housing in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury for two decades. The JPNDC specializes in cooperative housing, first-time homebuyer units and rentals to families and seniors. The JPNDC has a reputation for conducting in-depth community processes and working with surrounding community groups.

Urban Edge, meanwhile, has done mainly rental housing — over 800 units — and nearly 200 home ownership units and over 50 units of cooperative housing. The group thus brings significant rental management experience.

Urban Edge has been criticized by other community groups for planning to enter a memorandum of understanding to bring a KMart to the Jackson Square land in the late 1990s.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority took over the planning process for the land from Urban Edge after the KMart proposal.

Urban Edge made itself a central player in any future development of the public land when it bought two acres of adjacent land at 1542 Columbus Ave. and the Boston Auto Salvage Yard at 41 Amory St.

The additional land would allow the JPNDC and Urban Edge to increase the size of their joint project, and the two partners hope to convince the city to free up two more acres of land.

“We will propose a development that includes re-configuring the Department of Public Works [yard on Columbus Ave.], freeing up two more acres,” Urban Edge Executive Director Mossik Hacobian told the Banner during an interview last week.

The JPNDC and Urban Edge are the two nonprofit Boston community development corporations that claim Jackson Square as their development area.

JPNDC Executive Director Richard Thal said that by working together the two groups could achieve results for the community that could not be achieved separately.

“There are a lot of advantages of working together,” he said during last week’s joint interview with Hacobian. “It is a way to unify the communities around here in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury so they have a stake in the development. Also, it makes the project more effective and on a quicker timetable than if the parcels were developed piecemeal. There will be one set of traffic studies, etc.”

Activists, residents and business owners, under BRA oversight, have formulated a vision for the land which calls for at least 200 units of affordable housing — both rental and home-ownership. The vision also calls for a community/ youth center and small-scale commercial development. The vision also calls for up to 30 percent of the housing units to be market-rate.

The BRA’s request for proposals is expected to reflect this vision.

Hacobian and Thal appeared confident in their chances of winning the bid.

“It is more likely, given the capital return requirement that for-profits have that a nonprofit will develop it,” said Hacobian. “Within [government] programs with [housing] set-asides, nonprofits get more favorable terms.”

Even if the two groups win the bid, they could face significant financial barriers. Future federal funding for Section 8 units may be in jeopardy given recent and planned budget cuts, making development of affordable units all the more difficult.

Still, Thal and Hacobian speak excitedly about the unique touches their vision for the development may include, such as cutting Columbus Ave. down from six to four lanes by adding parking and providing homes for child care providers on site.

“There is a big opportunity to set up a network of community child care,” said Thal, whose organization has provided affordable housing specifically for home-based child-care providers. “One problem with providers has been long-term secure housing. That is another benefit we could look at bringing here. Because we are looking at creating a new community.”

 

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