Proposed development for 1785 Columbus Ave.

A 139,200-square-foot office building is being proposed for 1785 Columbus Ave. on the Jamaica Plain/Roxbury border.

The developer is Horizons Watermark LLC, which is a joint venture between Horizons for Homeless Children and Watermark Development Inc. Horizons for Homeless Children is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of young homeless children.

The site currently contains a vacant warehouse previously used for storage, an auto body shop, and a surface parking lot.

“This location was introduced to us by our co-development partners WaterMark Development,” said Kate Barrand, CEO of Horizons for Homeless Children. “This has been identified as a high-need area for our services, so we are excited about the prospect.”

The new building would be seven stories tall, occupied by Horizons on the second and third floors, and social service-oriented tenants on the upper floors. The building would contain ground floor local cafe or lunch spot, and 157 parking spaces. Potentially 500 persons may work in the proposed building.

The proposed new building fits into the goals of Plan: JP/ROX, even though the planning of this project predates the Plan: JP/Rox initiative by almost six years.

Plan: JP/ROX is a planning and development review of the Washington Street Corridor between the Forest Hills T Station and the Jackson Square T Station.

Barrand said that the group has held community meetings and have spoken with the neighbors about the project.

“The feedback so far has been positive; our community understands that there is a need for our services, and we are grateful that they’ve embraced our organization,” Barrand said. “We’re also thrilled to work with WaterMark because of their extensive development experience in the local community.”

An impact advisory meeting planned for Feb. 13 was canceled due to inclement weather, and will be rescheduled.

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