Site III of the Jackson Square redevelopment project is continuing to move forward, with the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) applying last month for funding for infrastructure improvements at the site.
JPNDC with its partner for the project, the Community Builders, hosted a meeting in March about plans for the site. Sally Swenson, spokesperson for JPNDC, said in an email to the Gazette that since that meeting they’ve been vetting the plan with city and state agencies and elected officials to attempt to pursue every “possible opportunity and resource.”
“Our main focus has been on securing funding for further infrastructure improvements on Site III, which have to happen before any construction,” she said. “We submitted an application [last month] for about $5.4 million, which will allow us to remove an old sewer line, add a new street that will serve the new housing, and do further improvements to the Columbus Avenue intersection, among others.”
Site III is vacant land roughly between the Orange Line corridor, Amory Street and Centre Street. The project will include two buildings, with one having 105 units of mixed-income home ownership, while the other will have 42 units of 100 percent affordable rental. There will also be about 12,000 square feet of retail space and 179 parking spots.
About 11 acres of land in Jackson Square is being redeveloped by a team that includes Mitchell Properties, JPNDC, TCB and Urban Edge. TCB and Mitchell Properties completed the first phase of the redevelopment at 225 Centre St. last fall. The overall redevelopment has moved slowly over decades of planning and funding bumps.
JPNDC will finish acquiring the infrastructure funding and reviewing the plans with state, city and elected officials before starting the Boston Redevelopment Authority Article 80 zoning review process.