BOSTON: One Neighborhood's Renaissance
Where nearly 40 years ago homes and businesses were bulldozed for highway construction that never materialized, a Boston neighborhood is finally being rebuilt. (You're going to have to find a new abandoned place to hold clandestine meetings now.) The Community Builders project manager Noah Sawyer (in front of the building and the Jackson Square T-stop) tells us the 103 apartments with retail in the first of 14 buildings planned for Jackson Square's $250M revival—225 Centre—are 80% leased just two months after construction was completed. And that success will snowball. The non-profit developer is in the early planning stages for the next property TCB will develop there at 250 Centre St, likely to be about 100 units.
This month, Urban Edge started site work on Jackson Commons across the street for another 37 apartments, and the Jamaica Plain Development Corp hopes to build 40 more units at Jackson Square next year. The neighborhood's biggest attraction (besides Whole Foods): rents nearly half of new apartment buildings downtown. A 1,075 SF two-bedroom at 225 Centre rents for $2,300/month to $2,700/month vs. a luxury 800 SF two-bedroom in the CBD that can be $5,300/month. People renting at 225 Centre are longtime neighborhood residents and newcomers who work at nearby hospitals and universities, Noah says.
