New life comes to old Cote Ford site

Twenty-four units in townhouses will be created on Regis Road in Mattapan. (Photo: Davis Square Architects)

For decades the site of the former Cote Ford dealership in Mattapan has remained vacant, with weeds growing where shiny rows of Detroit steel once beckoned to Cummings Highway commuters. Now a development team is looking to build housing, retail and outdoor recreational space there, which will abut a new train station on what is planned to be the city’s newest rapid transit line.

The Caribbean Integration Community Development and the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, Inc. are developing the site together under the name Cote Village, LLC. They were selected by the Department of Neighborhood Development following a request for proposals. The site includes 820 Cummins Highway and 30-32 Regis Road.

The developers plan to create 4,000 square feet of retail space, 42,000 square feet of green open space and 92 off-street parking spaces. They also intend to build 71 units of housing, the majority of which will be affordable to those making up to 60 percent of the area median income.

Financing for the project is provided by the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust.

This month, Cote Village sent a letter of intent to file an Expanded Project Notification Form to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, moving the project to the next step of the process.

The team expects the development to revitalize the neighborhood.

“The proposed development will turn the now abandoned property, which has been vacant for decades and a blighted influence on the neighborhood and surrounding area, into a thriving part of the Mattapan neighborhood fabric,” said Donald Alexis, president CICD, and Lisa Alberghini, president of POUA in their letter to the BRA.

Revitalizing business

Tina Petigny, executive director of Mattapan Main Streets, said that people in the community are interested especially in space for community activities and new businesses.

Cote Village’s proposal includes commercial space along Cummins Highway, Alexis said. Its location near the planned Blue Hill Avenue Fairmount Line Station also is expected to draw traffic.

Petigny expected opportunities for local businesses to bring both jobs and energy to the neighborhood.

“It will help to revitalize the community,” Petigny said.

Currently, residents wishing to shop tend to travel to other Main Streets districts or into the Lower

“[Currently] they [shoppers] don’t have to travel too far, but outside of your own neighborhood or own district is far enough,” Petigny said. “You should be able to walk out of your own house and walk into your neighborhood’s downtown and enjoy it. You should be able to be entertained and be able to patronize your neighborhood and put your money back into your own neighborhood.”

Affordable units

Cote Village’s plans call for 63 of the 71 housing units to be designated for people making up to 60 percent AMI.

“[The plan] really focuses on level of affordability that will really support that community,” Alberghini said, “Hopefully this will be a turning point for the Mattapan community.”

Twenty-four units will be in townhouses on Regis Street and 47 located in a four-story building on Cummins Highway, according to the intent-to-file letter. Fifteen one-bedroom units are planned, 49 two-bedroom and seven three-bedrooms, according to Alexis.

Job opportunities

The Cote Ford site redevelopment is designed to make a dent in Mattapan’s unemployment level, developers Alexis and Alberhgini said. According to a 2014 Boston Redevelopment Authority report, the neighborhood’s 17.3 percent unemployment rate is the highest in Boston.

In addition to retail, office and building upkeep jobs generated by the development project, Alberghini said more will be generated by the Building Pathways Building Trades Pre-Apprenticeship program, a training program to enter residents into construction careers.

Alexis said one contributor to Mattapan’s high unemployment rate is lack of training, something this program would help alleviate.

“That is why we take this approach,” he said. “If we can train more local residents and give them opportunities and jobs, that will be better for community as a whole”.

The pre-apprenticeship program sidesteps the cost and higher time requirements that may prevent many in the community from attending trade school, Alberghini said. The formal training lasts only six-weeks, with a greater promise of securing a job afterwards.

“A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to go to trade school. This is an alternative to that,” she said. “It guarantees placement as an apprentice on a job. It’s a rigorous training to get there, but it is an alternative path and a quicker path.”

“We try to think of this [the development] as really community building as opposed to just housing, and the jobs are an important part of that,” she added.

Site history

In the last decades of the 1900’s, contaminated earth and underground gasoline storage tanks were removed from the Cote Ford dealership site, according to the Dorchester Reporter. 820 Cummins Highway and 30-32 Regis Road were foreclosed in 2010 and 2011 and put up for sale in July 2014. The DND selected Cote Village LLC as the developers in May 2015.

The developer team said in their letter that they intend to proceed to filing the PNF in early November.

Cote Village has high hopes for the project.

“This could truly be a turning point for Mattapan and for the community that has been working so hard [to bring change],” said Alexis.