Cruz development continues Roxbury legacy with new affordable housing

When the blue and green ribbon was cut, fluttering in the chill of a late February day, it marked the end of about a decade of work that brings over 50 units of new housing to Roxbury.

The finished product, the Michael E. Haynes Arms building, just off Warren Street, includes 55 new units of housing, ranging from studio to three-bedroom apartments, with 46 of those units designated as affordable. Cruz Companies, which developed and built the property, celebrated at a jam-packed ribbon cutting Feb. 29.

Elected officials who attended the event like Sen. Liz Miranda and Rep. Chynah Tyler welcomed the development as a moment of Roxbury pride, with a local project by local developers — John Cruz III, president and CEO of Cruz Companies, grew up in Roxbury near Grove Hall, before taking over the family-owned firm established by his father, an immigrant from Cabo Verde.

Those ties are staying strong. The project — which had an estimated $34 million price tag at its inception — will also serve as the new headquarters for the Cruz Companies, which plans to make the full move from its current location on John Eliot Square in May.

“So much of our city is built by people who do not live in our city, who are sometimes never in our city even when they’re developing their projects,” Miranda said in remarks at the event. “To have something that is homegrown by the home team, I’m just really honored to be here.”

It also celebrates local figures. The building is named for Michael E. Haynes, a Roxbury native and leader who served as pastor of the nearby Twelfth Baptist Church and as state representative for the 7th Suffolk District. The choice of namesake was honored at the ribbon cutting for the legacy Haynes left in the neighborhood.

“We cannot do this work, not just as politicians or as developers, without caring about our communities and investing and that’s what he did,” Miranda said. Haynes “didn’t just preach, he made sure that the community of Roxbury had a voice.”

Abdi Ali speaks at the Feb. 29 ribbon cutting for the new Cruz Companies’ Michael E. Haynes Arms Building in Roxbury, which is named after his father. BANNER PHOTO

Haynes’ son, Abdi Ali, expressed hope that the new residents would continue the work of neighbors caring for each other, a lesson his father, who lived a handful of houses down from the new development on Clifford Street, instilled in him.

“We know for a fact that it’s not fences that make good neighbors, but neighbors working together that make good neighbors,” Ali said.

Cruz said he and his team pulled from personal experience, with family roots in the area to inform the plans for the four-story red brick building, keeping the large project off a small residential street and making sure it can house a variety of family sizes.

“We come from a large family on both sides, so we know what it is to need housing and have a big family,” Cruz said. “We’re more sensitive to that.”

For neighborhood leaders that local experience shows. The project comes to an area where residents often feel new developments are shoehorned into spaces where they don’t fit.

“People say we don’t want development; that’s not true. We want development that is with us, with the community, that fits into the space,” said Lorraine Payne Wheeler in an interview. Payne Wheeler heads Roxbury Path Forward, the neighborhood association with a catchment area that includes the new Cruz development.

For Payne Wheeler, the Haynes Arms building checks those boxes. The building will offer a variety of size units, and its sizable footprint — about 6,050 square feet — is on a big street rather than crammed into the middle of a residential area.

“We have other people that want to come to the middle of our residential streets, where it’s zoned for three families or less, but they want to come with 20 units,” Payne Wheeler said.

Supporters of the project also noted how the project pulled in workers and companies of color for the construction process. Payne Wheeler pointed to that as another reason the development is supported by her and the neighborhood association.

Daniel Cruz Jr., senior vice president of the Cruz Companies’ development arm, said about 80% of all the workers who were involved with the project were Black or brown.

“We put as many people of color because we wanted to show folks that it can be done and economic inclusion is not a bad thing — to change the narrative right and say, ‘Hey, inclusivity is a good thing,’” he said.

The Haynes Arms building is the first phase of the project at the site, with the second taking over the building next door at 270 Warren St. That space, which was once a movie theater, and more recently a church, will make way for a planned 48 units of mixed-income housing and will include a café and restaurant space on the first floor.

Miranda, who grew up on Dudley Street, said she’s excited to see Cruz Companies redevelop the space that used to house the theater, as a way of building back from things like urban renewal and redlining that took community landmarks, while giving a nod to what once was there.

“The idea is that paying homage to things of yesteryear is super important for us, that the new generation and the generations behind them remember, and we never forget how beautiful Roxbury was,” she said.

That second phase of the development also marks more reasons for community leaders like Payne Wheeler to support the work.

“Just being able to walk, in our neighborhood, to a restaurant and buy breakfast? That’s a big incentive for us,” Payne Wheeler said. “There’s a lot that’s positive about this project.