(From left to right) Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation Executive Director Richard Thal, Mayor Martin Walsh and local state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez at the groundbreaking for the 75 Amory Ave. project. (Courtesy Photo)
JACKSON SQ.—Local elected officials, including local state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and Mayor Martin Walsh, gathered on Sept. 30 to announce three milestones reached in the Jackson Square redevelopment, according to a press release.
About 11 acres of land in Jackson Square is being redeveloped by a team that includes Mitchell Properties, the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC) and Urban Edge. The first project, an apartment building at 225 Centre St., was completed in 2013.
The milestones are the completion of Urban Edge’s Jackson Commons project, the groundbreaking for 75 Amory Ave. and $200,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to remediate land in the area.
“I am proud that the City of Boston has invested funding into the redevelopment of these once vacant and underutilized public and private parcels,” said Walsh, according to the press release. “I want to thank the EPA for this grant to help us move forward with the process of restoring the land to a useful state, and our partners for working with us to create transit-oriented housing that will knit the Roxbury and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods together.”
The Jackson Commons project is an expansion of Urban Edge’s building at 1542 Columbus Ave. into a three-story, 23,600-square-foot building with 37 affordable-housing units, 10,000 square feet of office space and 2,000 square feet of retail space.
The 75 Amory Ave. project is four-floor building with 39 affordable rental units and 1,015 square feet for office and resident program use that is being developed by JPNDC.
The EPA grant will go to remediate land next to Jackson Square that was formerly an industrial and will eventually be used for a recreational center.