Norwell St Affordable Condominiums
The Welcome Home Boston RFP has provided us with an exciting and unique opportunity to address long-standing housing inequity in our community while making substantial progress on the city’s sustainability and resiliency goals. Our proposed development project involve building twelve condominium units in three separate buildings over three contiguous parcels of land on Norwell Street in the Greater Four Corners neighborhood of Dorchester, just a couple blocks from our office building. The Project will consist of (3) free-standing buildings each with (1) 4-Bedroom Unit (1100 sf) on the ground floor, (2) 1-Bedroom Units (560 sf each) on the second floor, and (1) 3-Bedroom Unit (1054 sf) on the third floor. The scale and form of the buildings fit into the existing fabric of neighboring parcels and do not feel imposing on the site. The makeup of unit size and affordability levels were optimized to meet the needs of the community: Half of the units are “Family Sized” units, and two-thirds of the units will be affordable at or below 80% AMI. We strive to ensure opportunities exist within our development for lower-income families looking to plant roots in the neighborhood. The remaining (6) units will all be one bedroom units to provide opportunities for young professionals or the families looking to downsize.
The buildings will be all-electric and built to Passive House standards. Roof insulation will achieve an R-80 value through denspack insulation between studs and 4” of exterior Wood Fiber board. With a similar strategy, walls will achieve a R-40 rating and foundations will utilized continuous EPS insulation to prevent thermal bridging through the concrete and achieve an R-27 value. The building will utilize balanced ventilation systems to provide fresh filtered air to the units 24/7. The orientation and design of the roofs will maximize the capacity of rooftop Photovoltaic Solar panels which we are proposing to include up-front as part of our construction budget. Solar credits and incentives will contribute to the affordability of homeownership for the new buyers.
Additionally, (12) Bike Parking spaces will be provided to allow each unit the opportunity to keep a bike securely stored on site. Each parking space will include a dedicated circuit to power a Level 2 EV Charger. The proposal seeks to incentivize residents to utilize public transit and walking/biking, while acknowledging the reality that not all residents will be able to live without a car - we believe that we have struck a balance that meets the needs of prospective buyers and provides an easy path to net-zero transportation for residents with the adoption of EV’s.