5 Bids Compete For Rights To Redevelop South Boston Housing Project
Developers are vying for a chance to redevelop the 27-acre site of one of Boston's most centrally located public housing complexes.
Five teams have filed proposals with the Boston Housing Authority to redevelop the Mary Ellen McCormack housing complex near the Andrew MBTA station in South Boston, the Boston Globe reports. The BHA has launched a campaign to partner with private developers to help renovate older public housing and then allow the builder to construct market-rate units on the remaining land. While a similar request to help renovate a complex in outlying Jamaica Plain only fielded one bid, the McCormack site drew offers from five different teams.
Joseph J. Corcoran Co., Trinity Development, Winn Cos., a joint proposal between Beacon Communities and National Development and a joint bid from Philadelphia-based Pennrose and Texas-based Hunt Cos. are all competing for the development rights.
The winner is tasked with replacing 1,016 housing units in the 79-year-old complex while gaining the ability to build market-rate housing and commercial space on the rest of the grounds. A similar project is underway in Charlestown, where Corcoran Jennison Associates and California-based SunCal are planning a $1B project to turn a Bunker Hill public housing project, constructed in the 1940s, into the mixed-income One Charlestown development.
The bids for the South Boston site come just as the Boston Planning and Development Agency looks to redevelop nearby Dorchester Avenue between Andrew and Broadway stations. Developers have also announced plans to construct Washington Village, a five-acre expanse of condominiums and apartments, a few blocks north of the McCormack site on Old Colony Avenue.
