Anyone who hasn’t walked down Heath Street in a while can be excused if they have a Rip Van Winkle experience when they see Mildred Hailey Buildings 1a and 1b, the Positive Zone School, 61 Heath St., 101 Heath St., and lately the modernization of five Mildred Hailey Apartment buildings at Heath Street and Walden Street.

Lost amid all the excitement of the completion of two six-story, mixed-income buildings at Lamartine and Heath Street, the rehabilitation and modernization of the oldest of the Mildred Hailey apartments is equally significant. It is the complete exterior and interior modernization of the original public housing buildings competed in January 1942.

More importantly is that this modernization is being done for only public housing residents and not part of a public-private, mixed-income redevelopment; this is 100 percent Boston Housing Authority (BHA).

There are 14 buildings in what was called Heath Street Housing in 1942, and five are being modernized and rehabilitated; the rest are planned to be done in four more phases. It was originally announced in May 2023 that the total five-phase project would replace seven residential buildings with seven new residential building with approximately 672 homes, preserving 253 afffordable units for current residents and creating approximately 420 new homes for low- and moderate-income families.

Phase I is called Heath Street West; 18-26 Horan Way and 49- 57 Horan Way are completed; and 70 Heath Street/10 Walden Street is well underway.

The BHA solicited bids in May 2024 for the “comprehensive modernization of 87 public housing units for the first phase… the term modernization is used on drawings and specifications to distinguish it from Centre Street Partners [Buildings 1a and 1b].”

Bergman-Hendrie + Archtype are the architects; Ground Inc., the landscape architect; and Consigli the contractor. Ground Inc. is also the designer for Mozart Playground, and Consigli of Milford built Mildred Hailey buildings 1a and 1b.

The $69 million modernization was begun by Mayor Michelle Wu, when she was barely 90 days in office, on Jan. 20,2022. She joined the BHA at Mildred Hailey to announce that “$50 million would be allocated for improvements at Mildred Hailey Apartments.” She added, “The architect would be selected in the next few weeks.”

The mayor said the grant would go for capital needs. That was an understatement.

As then BHA administrator Kate Bennett said at the time, “$50 million is a staggering investment in Mildred Hailey.”

It took a while to assemble the funds required as the BHA told The Bulletin last week: $52 million from the city added to additional funding from the Community Preservation Act, Mass Saves and Mass Dept of Energy Resources.

The work is extensive and comprehensive, and the BHA sent The Bulletin the scope of work.

The first resident meetings on the modernization were held on Sept. 20 and 26, 2023.

On the exterior: insulation, siding, solar panels, windows doors and roofing.

Ground Inc. has already designed paving upgrades for the walks and the splash pool and sports plaza at the end of Horan Way.

The interior work is also extensive and required the temporary relocation of tenants, “with the right to return” as the BHA emphasized.

New kitchens, bathrooms, in-unit laundry and dishwashers, all electric heating cooling and hot water, intercom and front doors.

All accessibility features will be upgraded as well.

The BHA project manger is Richard Jegorow, deputy director of construction. According to the BHA, relocation for the first building began in the summer of 2024.

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Consigli began work in January 2025 at the Heath-Walden corner of the development. It is a highly labor intensive project as The Bulletin watched a week ago; the original brick is cleaned and insulation sheets applied, over that a cold steel anchorage system of long slats are drilled in; these slats support prefab panels of either beige fiber cement or red umber metal siding.

The interior buildings along Horan Way have beige panels on the walls while the more publicly visible corner of 170 Heath St. building has red umber metal siding.

The prefabricated windows are set over the existing window wells from the inside.

The site at 170 Heath/10 Walden includes, like all the other original 1942 buildings, 24 units of various bedroom sizes.

It is one of the longest at 158 feet; metal siding and windows were being installed last week. The BHA said the first phase of modernization will be completed at the end of the year.

The Sept. 28 2023 Power Point presentation at the tenants’ meeting included a plan of the next four phases; Phase2 will include three Heath Street buildings: 120-130, 106-110-114 and 9 -98 Heath St.

Phase 4 of the modernization facing the new Lamartine Street will include three, seven-story high rises numbered 930-955 Parker St. opposite Mildred Hailey 1a and 1b. Residents now living at 930- 955 Parker St. will have totally modernized apartments equal to those at the mixed-income buildings across the street.

In 2020, Community Builders – the partner on Mildred Hailey 1a an1b – estimated the cost of these buildings with the new road at $145 million.

With the completion of Heath Street West modernization later this year, the total public investment will be $213 million for Mildred Hailey Apartments.

“Hailey is one of the strong points of the future of Jackson Square,” Bennett said at the groundbreaking of 1a and 1b on May 12, 2023.

Ribbon cutting for 1a and 1b are tentatively planned for July; in the meantime, leasing for 2-6 Lamartine Street (building 1b) is underway in addition to the returning public housing residents, 91 for both buildings.

A two-bedroom apartment at 2-6 Lamartine will lease for $2,233 a month at 60 percent area median income (AMI) with a minimum income of $66,900.

The Bulletin strolled around Heath Street West on a recent sultry Friday afternoon and spoke with a few residents and all seemed happy with the new work.

One man sitting in the shade said he lived at 138 Heath Street. and was hoping his building would be next; then he asked: “Do you own this place?”