225 Centre Street

The first phase of an ambitious 14-building, $250 million redevelopment effort in the Jackson Square community of Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. Follow development progress on the 225 Centre Street Construction Blog.

Forty years ago, an ill-fated highway expansion project bulldozed homes and businesses in Jamaica Plain's Jackson Square, disrupting what had been a closely knit neighborhood and leaving much of it as vacant or underutilized land. In 1995, a consortium of community groups, including the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, Urban Edge and the Hyde Square Task Force, began planning the comprehensive redevelopment of Jackson Square. Working closely with city and state officials and a private developer, Mitchell Properties, the team created a master plan that includes over 400 units of housing, 60,000 square feet of retail space, 13,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of community facilities. 225 Centre Street is the first phase of this new $250 million redevelopment effort.

A joint venture between The Community Builders, Inc. and Mitchell Properties, 225 Centre Street has received tremendous support from city, state and local officials and community stakeholders. The project will use $2.3 million in state issued low-income housing tax credits, $2 million in Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) program subsidies and another $503,988 in federal low-income housing tax credits.

The new mixed-use/mixed-income building will feature 103 rental units, including 35 affordable units, over 16,000 square feet of commercial/retail space, an underground parking structure and dramatic landscape improvements. Ten of the affordable rental units will be reserved for extremely low-income families. Overall project costs are estimated at $50 million and construction is expected to start in April 2011.

225 Centre Street is a transit-oriented development and located immediately adjacent to the Jackson Square MBTA station. The site is less than 2.5 miles from downtown Boston, ½ mile from Northeastern University and the Longwood medical area. Roxbury Community College is located just two blocks from the site.

"By investing this targeted blend of funds to spur housing development, through this project and others like it, we are actively strengthening Jamaica Plain and other communities across Massachusetts. Creating affordable housing helps to generate jobs, grow local businesses and build a better, stronger Commonwealth."

—Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick

"Like so many projects, this has been a great public-private effort and city-state effort. We're not only creating housing opportunities. We're creating great construction jobs, we're helping the revitalization of a community, we're putting jobs and housing right at a great node of public transit. This is truly an extraordinary project and we're pleased to be a part of it."

—Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki