PARCEL 9 GRANTED FINAL DESIGNATION

Parcel 9: Melnea Hotel and Residences - View Along Melnea Cass Boulevard

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) gave the final designation to Parcel 9: Melnea Hotel and Residences. The vacant parcel of land, which is jointly owned by the BRA and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), will be redeveloped as the Melnea Hotel and Residences.

The mixed-use project includes a Marriott Residence Inn hotel, rental apartments, retail spaces and accessory parking spaces. The Parcel 9 site is located between Dudley Square and South End and is surrounded by Melnea Cass Boulevard, Washington Street, Shawmut Avenue and Ball Street. The unique site offers an opportunity to design and build a highly visible and dynamically shaped building that captured expansive views of downtown Boston and its surrounding neighborhoods.

The overarching aspirations of the project include revitalizing an underutilized parcel of land, creating job opportunities within the Roxbury neighborhood and enlivening a key Boston thoroughfare with pedestrians and street activities. The project will also fulfill a larger social agenda to help transform this inner city neighborhood by providing good-waged jobs starting at $18/hour, priority for local hires and a $400,000 contribution to a community job training fund.

The BRA Board of Directors' gave its unanimous approval on October 15 2015, clearing the project to proceed to the next phase. The project hopes to start work this year and open in 2017. This achievement is a culmination of  4+ years of permitting and community processes when the project team answered the Request for Proposal (RFP) back in July 2011. Stay tune for more updates as the project moves towards the construction phase!

Check out the press release from BRA and the write ups in Boston Globe 1, Boston Globe 2,  Banker & Tradesman and Boston Business Journal.