On Thursday, February 12th, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) announced its commitment of funding to support the redevelopment at Brian J. Honan (BJH) Apartments.
BJH Apartments is a townhouse-style complex consisting of nine buildings with 50 units of deeply affordable housing ranging from one-to three-bedroom apartments. In 2002, with help from the late City Councilor Brian J. Honan, ABCDC purchased the former Legal Sea Foods Company Headquarters and Warehouse at 33 Everett Street in Allston which became the site for this development. Now, BJH Apartments requires significant improvements to many of its basic components which also provides a unique opportunity to incorporate the most up to date energy systems into this important source of deep affordable housing. Funding from EOHLC will provide pivotal support for this groundbreaking, shovel-ready rehab project.
“I am tremendously pleased that the Healey-Driscoll Administration share the vision of the Allston Brighton CDC and supports the efforts to preserve this very important affordable housing site,” said ABCDC’s Executive Director, John Woods. “As Allston continues to experience significant changes to its neighborhoods the need for high quality housing that is affordable remains constant. With these funding awards the CDC can help ensure that the Brian J. Honan Apartments will continue to be home for our residents for generations to come. We are thankful for all the support we have received from our local officials and from the community we serve to help make this innovative project possible.”
This project will be a Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) and will be designed to meet the Passive House standards, reducing energy usage by 62% and carbon emissions by 51%. This building will be “wrapped” with a new high-performance thermal envelope and will have all existing gas-fired HVAC and domestic hot water systems replaced with new, all-electric systems. This rehab will not only drastically reduce energy usage at the property but will also improve the health and comfortability of all residents. This project is part of the 1,000 Apartment Challenge, a program of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), to dramatically reduce carbon emissions through DERs throughout the Commonwealth.
The area around BJH Apartments running along the MassPike has seen an enormous amount of private development in recent years, resulting in a fear that low-income residents will be displaced. BJH Apartments represents an island of affordability in a quickly gentrifying area. This rehab underscores ABCDC’s commitment to affordability in perpetuity. All 50 of these apartments are deed restricted affordable and will remain so, serving households earning up to and below 60% of Area Median Income (AMI).
We would like to thank the Healey-Driscoll Administration for this pivotal support as well as our project partners from the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH), Department of Energy Resources (DOER), Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute), and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).
The DER at BJH is one of the most green, sustainable, and climate-resilient affordable housing preservation projects in the City of Boston and we are looking forward to starting construction at the site later this year!
