Some 90 years ago, Boston built its first public housing development, a sprawling, low-slung complex in South Boston called Old Harbor that was so large it effectively became its own neighborhood.
And on Monday, after decades of wear and tear, officials broke ground on the first phase of a massive $2 billion redevelopment of the complex — now called the Mary Ellen McCormack — that will eventually replace each of the existing 1,016 public housing units and add an additional 2,300 mixed-income apartments and condos.
The groundbreaking kicked off a construction process that is expected to last nearly two decades and constitute one of the largest redevelopments in Boston’s history. When the project is done, in 2043 by the developer’s timeline, this historic neighborhood stretching across 30 acres between Andrew Square and Moakley Park will have been razed to the ground and built anew, complete with infrastructure upgrades including roads and green space, new retail space, and climate reinforcements.
“It is impossible to overstate how the legacy of this community, once called the Old Harbor Housing Project, has shaped the [Boston Housing Authority], the South Boston neighborhood, the City of Boston and the thousands of families who have called it home across generations,” said BHA administrator Kenzie Bok. “I’m excited to not only see that legacy secured through mixed-income redevelopment, but to know that Boston’s oldest public housing community will now be one of its greenest, safest, and most modern. Our residents deserve no less.”
The first building planned in Phase One of the redevelopment of the Mary Ellen McCormack public housing complex in South Boston.The Architectural Team
While officials put shovels in the ground for a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday, construction is already underway by developer WinnCompanies, with workers moving dirt and beginning to lay the foundations for the first new buildings. This first phase of the project was approved by the city in 2023 and will focus on the northern portion of the site. It will include the construction of 1,310 units, 529 of which will be public housing, across eight residential buildings. The second phase, which still requires some permitting and planning, will complete the rest.
Like many public housing developments in Boston and across Massachusetts, the McCormack has fallen into disrepair after decades of insufficient funding for its upkeep.
Public housing is quite difficult to rebuild because both subsidies and rents to pay for it are relatively low. So increasingly, officials and developers have looked to turn public housing complexes into broader redevelopment projects that include market-rate units, with the more expensive market-rate rents helping to finance the subsidized homes. A similar model is being used to raze and rebuild the Bunker Hill public housing development in Charlestown.
And in 2017, the BHA selected Winn to lead the McCormack project.
Their $1.1 billion first phase will rely on a complicated web of financing, including significant private equity, federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity from Bank of America, and commitments from both the city and the state.
Public-private partnerships are often the only way these redevelopments can work financially, said Miceal Chamberlain, Bank of America’s Massachusetts president.
“You have to bring a lot of different funding sources to the table to make it work,” said Chamberlain. “That’s state and local, the housing authority is involved in this case, and then you have private organizations that had to come to the table to make this a reality.”
Work is underway on the massive redevelopment of the Mary Ellen McCormack public housing complex in South Boston, the city’s oldest public housing development.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Winn has been meeting for nearly a decade now with residents and community leaders to conceptualize a project they hope will breathe new life into the complex.
One of the bigger challenges of the project will be ensuring the McCormack’s existing residents have a place in the newly rebuilt complex when it’s done. Officials have plotted out “a complex relocation strategy” that aims to minimize the number of residents who have to temporarily move out. Some residents, the developers hope, will be able to move directly from their existing apartment to a new one. Every current resident in good standing will have the right to return to the redeveloped complex, officials have said.
The first building, which will contain 94 public housing units, is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2026.
Carol Sullivan, president of the Mary Ellen McCormack Task Force, a group of residents helping guide the redevelopment, said residents are pleased they have been involved in the planning process, and are finally getting improved homes.
“We have shaped every aspect of this first project from the playground equipment in Veterans Park to the layout of the apartments and the interior finishes,” Sullivan said. “We cannot wait to see the smiles on residents’ faces when they move into their new, affordable homes.”
Andrew Brinker can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @andrewnbrinker.