Two housing developments at two different ends of Jamaica Plain each held ribbon cuttings on June 24: Mildred Hailey Phase 1, a public housing development and Brookley Flats in the gentrified Stonybrook neighborhood.

Both emphasized the value of homes, but both were also experiments: at Mildred Hailey how to sustain permanent lowest-income housing in the face of Federal capitulation, and at Brookley Flats how to create affordable homeownership for those usually left out.

As The Bulletin has reported since 2017, the Mildred Hailey experiment is a 99-year ground lease of 6.9 acres of public housing to a private real estate partnership.

The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) would own the land and control how it would be used and manage the project-based public housing vouchers.

In 2017 Centre Street Partners – The Community Builders, JPNDC and Urban Edge – was designated to build a mixed-income housing project that would also preserve all BHA tenants.

Phase One is two six-story, 223-unit buildings designed by Prellwitz Chillinski Architects, which replaced Bromley Hall, a playground and 24-34 Heath Street.

Of those 223 apartments, 91 are one-to-one public housing tenant replacements; the rest are mixed-income units.

A Groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 12, 2023.

The two new buildings numbered 2-6 Lamartine Street are on a rebuilt Lamartine Street which will ultimately again connect Centre and Heath Streets.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony in the new 8,600-square-foot Anna Mae Cole community room was so crowded even Mayors Office of Housing Chief Sheila Dillon had a hard time finding a seat.

It was the usual hour-long medley of thank you’s, shout-outs and applause by, among others, State Sen. Liz Miranda, District 6 City Councilor Ben Weber, BHA Administrator Kenzie Bok, former State Rep Jeffrey Sanchez, and Andy Waxman of TCB. The speeches lasted until Yolanda Torres, flanked by six tenants, took the floor to announce:

“I’m proud to say I’m a resident of Mildred Hailey apartments and I’m president of the tenant leadership. This is a wonderful experience.”

At the groundbreaking Torres said, “Mildred Hailey gave me a home. Now, we will have new home.”

With the new home in front of her Torres said, “This will change a lot of lives. I look forward to what comes next. Thank you to my residents.”

Sanchez said,“This is so profound, the incredible women – Anna Mae Cole, Mildred Hailey and Julia Martin … all they accomplished. Bromley One Family.”

Mayor Wu held the ribbon cutting with an invited group outside before she took the podium inside.

Wu picked up on what Sanchez said, “So many leaders. The women who worked hard for us,” she said, adding that she wanted to “welcome my predecessor, my mayor Kim Janey.”

Acknowledging, much less inviting a predecessor to share a ceremony, is rare in Boston politics. Janey was in the front row and stood up next to Mayor Wu.

Janey seemed to sense that the Mildred Hailey ribbon cutting was in large part a ceremony for the people who already lived there.

“Thank you Yolanda and all the tenants for allowing us to celebrate with you,” she said.

Brookley Flats condominiums had a long and tortuous route to its ribbon cutting on June 24.

It changed ownership, but also changed its mission and demographic; what began in 2019 as a routine 45-unit rental building with five self-financed affordable units changed in 2021 to 45 permanently affordable, income-restricted homeownership units.

This in a gentrified neighborhood of quintessential young professionals with a smattering of empty nesters.

This unique model came about through routine neighborhood opposition.

In May 2019 Matt Zahler and Jeff Glew of Brooksted LLC proposed a four-story, 45-unit apartment building designed by Embarc Architects to replace Mello Fuel transfer station.

The Stonybrook Neighborhood Association (SNA) opposed it and convinced the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) to vote it down too; but despite that opposition, the Boston Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) approved it in July 2020.

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The SNA appealed the ZBA decision causing a one-year delay.

The SNA lost its appeal in court, but the one-year delay cost Brooksted; the company could no longer get financial support for the self-financed affordable units and they sought a buyer.

They found an interesting one, a partnership of Causeway Develoment and the Jamaica Plain Community Development Corporation (JPNDC) which signed an agreement on Aug. 26,2021.

Changing the name to Brookley Flats, what Causeway and JPNDC planned was to build out 45 condominiums and find the financing to market these to not just first-time homebuyers but those buyers who were the first in their family to buy.

As the JPNDC told The Bulletin in November 2024 when Brookley was under construction, “It’s the largest affordable homeownership project in Boston and the first to reserve units for people who don’t have the advantage of expecting to inherit from home-owning parents. We’re curious how it turns out.”

“We took a leap of faith,” David Traggorth of Causeway said at the groundbreaking.

“Mass Housing Investment gave us an acquisition loan of $5 million.” This was through the Commonwealth Builder Program which provides market-rate subsidies to support construction of new, mid-priced condominiums.

All 45 condominiums have been sold; one average sale price was $360,000 for a three-bedroom condo. Two artists purchased two of the five artist live-work condos.

It was also a full house at Brookley Flats although the community room was much smaller; Sheila Dillon found a seat.

Terronda Ellis, JPNDC director, welcomed “all the new homeowners that are here in this room.”

“This is the largest homeownership [project] in the city of Boston so far. We’ve been doing this for three years,”she said.

But the delay increased the price: from $14 million in 2020 to $20.3 million now.

Dillon also recognized the new first time home buyers.”that have a chance to live in the city,”she said.

“This is very interesting,” Dillon said. “My idea is that we can use this again in the city.”

‘’It’s wonderful. Keep it going.”

Michelle Volpe, of the Property and Casualty Initiative kept the superlatives going.

“The $10 million from PCI is a significant investment,” she said, “It’s trust in the people. Vision driven capital. Housing like this is increasingly out of reach for first generation buyers.”

“This is an extraordinary partnership. This is worth celebrating, Congratulations to the new homeowners home.”

One of those was Nadia Torres and her second-grader daughter.

“This is amazing,” she said, “My neighbors are amazing. Now when my daughter goes to school she can come home here. It means a lot.”