Nubian Square could see big changes in 2023

December 14, 2022 : Boston Business Journal, by Greg Ryan

Roxbury’s Nubian Square has seen its fair share of false starts. When Boston Public Schools moved its headquarters into the Bolling building in 2015, for instance, the hope was that it would spur private investment across the neighborhood. That didn't happen — at least, not immediately.

But 2023 could prove the year that real estate development in Nubian hits a tipping point, when plans and pledges become shovels in the ground and beams in the sky in the heart of the square. That is, if the momentum today is not snuffed out by economic headwinds.

“There’s visible action now. When you go down to the square, you see construction going on,” the developer Richard Taylor said.

In years past, those backhoes and jackhammers were often for public-sector projects: a new police station, the BPS building, a renovated library. Now, more are for sizable commercial and residential developments. Late last year, a six-story building with 45 condo units — most of them market-rate — opened across Warren Street from BPS headquarters. The developer, Klaus Kimel, has started construction on a 30-unit building next door. A few blocks north, construction work began this fall on a complex with 74 units, nearly all income-restricted, and a new home for the Haley House Bakery Café. In the other direction, a 50-unit senior living building is set to open at Bartlett Station in 2023.

Next year could bring even bigger projects to life. By the end of 2023, Taylor is aiming to finalize financing and break ground on his Nubian Square Ascends development, to be located on a city-owned parcel on Washington Street. Approved by the Boston Planning and Development Agency a year ago, Nubian Ascends is to include 15 condo units, a medical office and life sciences training building, a culinary hall and a performing arts center. The residential would come first.

The Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology is set to start construction next year on a 68,000-square-foot campus, located down the street from the future Nubian Ascends on Harrison Avenue. That is scheduled to open in the fall of 2024, replacing the technical school’s long-time South End location.

There are a handful of other projects already approved to go up on government-owned parcels in Nubian, promising hundreds more residential units in the neighborhood, including 60 income-restricted rental units on Dudley Street from Cruz Development that could break ground in the next six months. Then there’s Parcel P3, a proposal from The HYM Investment Group and My City at Peace to bring over 600,000 square feet of lab space and nearly 500 residential units just outside Nubian on Tremont Street. That project is still awaiting BPDA approval.

Commercial buildings and the Benjamin Franklin campus would bring more people to the neighborhood by day. Developers are collectively hoping that the new housing will keep a critical mass of people in Nubian at night, creating more fertile ground for the types of restaurants and retailers that have struggled to survive there.

“If you were to come to Nubian Square at 5:05, it’s — on most days — a ghost town,” said Andre Porter, a consultant and former state and city official working on Nubian projects. “As more people come back to actually live in the square, that will then attract a broader range of retail. I would say the ultimate goal is to get a decent-sized sit-down restaurant in the square.”

Developers face fast-rising interest rates and construction costs that are starting to shelve projects across the region. That threatens to at least delay the progress underway in Nubian. Taylor takes heart that public agencies like MassDevelopment can step up to keep affordable housing projects going, in particular.

“Yes, there’s a bit of a cause for concern, but on the other side I see being assembled a significant amount of public resources that can provide some bridge to some of these potential problems,” Taylor said.

Even in the best circumstances, the vision that Taylor and others have for Nubian will not be fully realized in the next 12 months. But on a slightly longer time frame, they envision a transformed neighborhood.

"In five years, I see a Nubian Square that is a five- or 15-minute neighborhood, where everything you need is within walking distance,” said Turahn Dorsey, an Eastern Bank Foundation executive who is part of a team seeking to open the restaurant and arts venue Jazz Urbane Café in the Bolling building next year. “I see a Nubian that really reflects the people who have been there and called that place home."