DREAM Collaborative and New Atlantic Development have broken ground on a 74-unit housing complex in Nubian Square that will combine affordable and market-rate housing with artists’ studios, retail space and a new retail location for the Haley House’s cafe, which currently occupies the parcel at 2147 Washington St.
“This is an important and exciting milestone for Nubian Square as we create more affordable homes for residents and a new home for the Haley House Bakery and Café,” said Mayor Michelle Wu in a statement.
The project is the first of several planned housing developments in Nubian Square to break ground. It will include 62 rental units affordable to people making 30%, 60% and 80% of the HUD-designated area median income, as well as 12 condominiums: four designated for incomes of 70% of AMI, four for 100% of AMI and four priced at market rate.
Local artists will be given preference for 31 of the 62 rental units and all 12 of the condominiums. The building will include a 4,100-square-foot artists’ workshop that will be open to community members.
The Haley House Bakery and Café, which was operating out of the nonprofit’s own building on the site, will reopen when the project is complete in a 2,000-square-foot space fronting Washington Street. The nonprofit’s building will remain in place behind the new building.
“This project exemplifies our commitment to building inclusive and equitable places for all people,” said Greg Minott, managing principal of DREAM Collaborative and DREAM Development. “We have very ambitious goals for building performance as well as an emphasis on supporting local artists and small businesses, and of course, being a great place to live for residents.”
DREAM Collaborative tapped funding from government and private sources to subsidize the construction of 2147 Washington St., including investments from the Mayor’s Office of Housing, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, MassHousing, Red Stone Equity Partners, TD Bank, Blue Hub, and the Life Initiative.
The firm has designed other projects in Boston, including affordable housing at 2451 Washington St., the Hearth at Four Corners building on Washington Street in Dorchester and the Freedom House headquarters redesign on Crawford Street in Grove Hall.
More projects in the works
Other housing developments on city-owned land planned for Nubian Square include 135 Dudley St., a 168-unit Cruz Development project at the site of the former Area B2 substation, with 8,700 square feet of retail space and a 146-car parking garage; Nubian Square Ascends, a project led by developer Richard Taylor that will occupy the parking lot at the former Blair Foodland site, set to include cultural space, a life sciences training center and artist housing; 40-50 Warren St., a Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation project that includes 41 affordable homes; and Parcel 8, a 102-unit affordable housing rental project helmed by developer Kamran Zahedi that will bring artist live-work spaces and a satellite campus for the National Center of Afro-American Artists Museum.
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