ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
March 3, 2005
Dorchester project wins environmental award
Yawu Miller
Back in 1994, the end of Bay Street was a contaminated site with
a lagoon filled with lead, silver, volatile organic compounds,
oil, grease, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other
dangerous compounds.
The 4.7 acre site also contained the abandoned three-story former
Boston Insulated Wire and Cable Company and a defunct railroad
spur, all of which had to be cleaned up.
It took eight years and more than $15 million, but last week the
Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation was recognized
for its perseverance with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection’s Phoenix Award — one of 14 such awards
given nation-wide.
Last week Dorchester Bay Board members met with officials from
the Environmental Protection Agency and employees of the Spire
marketing corporation that is now located on the site to celebrate
the award.
“The thing that really jumps out at us is the amount of
collaboration at all levels of government and the reaching out
to the local community and bringing them in at all levels of the
planning process,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator
for the EPA.
Dorchester Bay EDC Executive Director Jeanne Dubois said the organization
held numerous planning meetings with local residents who had for
years lived within view of the abandoned manufacturing plant on
the site.
“This project was an ugly duckling,” Dubois said.
Walking through the new two-story building on the site, Dubois
noted the construction of new housing in the neighborhood. Directly
across from the building, workers were busily remodeling a triple
decker. Next to the Red Line tracks, which run behind the Spire
building, a row of privately-developed town houses selling for
$300,000 per unit were recently developed.
“Our vision is for a healthy community,” Dubois said.
“We don’t believe in just building affordable housing.”
Dorchester Bay has developed nearly 1,000 units of housing since
it was founded in 1979. It has also developed commercial buildings,
including the flat-iron Columbia Road building which houses the
CDC’s offices. Like many CDCs, Dorchester Bay has pursued
both commercial and residential development. The CDC is part of
a collaborative among Boston-area CDCs that makes small business
loans.
The Spire company, which provides marketing, design, printing
and mailing services, provides 140 jobs, many of them filled by
community residents. The firm features an internal career ladder,
enabling job applicants to work their way up from the printing
presses and paper cutting machines on the manufacturing floor.
The development of the Spire building was part of the CDC’s
overall mission of stimulating economic development.
“Our organization took over the site because the private
market simply was not working,” DuBois said. “There
were too many disincentives for private investors — from
pollution to taxes to the high standards of the neighbors —
but we were able to work with the neighbors, funders and politicians
alike and, like a quilt, it looks better for the variety.”
After Dorchester Bay took over the site, the city forgave $1 million
in back taxes. The $15,720,000 required to complete the project
was financed through a combination of public and private funding
from more than 20 individual organizations. Dorchester Bay put
$800,000 into the deal.
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