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Boston Homeless Housing Project To Break Ground In The Fall

A rendering of the permanent housing project on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain. (Courtesy Boston Planning & Development Agency)
A rendering of the permanent housing project on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain. (Courtesy Boston Planning & Development Agency)

The Pine Street Inn and its codevelopers can proceed with building a 202-unit building after reaching a settlement with a neighbor who sued to stop construction.

Pine Street and its partner, Community Builders, plan to break ground by fall on the building that will include 140-units for the homeless with a suite of social services onsite, The Boston Globe reported.

“We’re really happy that this litigation has been settled,” said Pine Street’s chief executive, Lyndia Downie. “This is literally a groundbreaking project for us.”

When the project was approved by the Boston Planning & Development Agency, the plan only called for 38 parking spaces, which prompted the lawsuit from Jamaica Plain landlord Montgomery Gold. Gold argued that the lack of onsite parking would lead tenants to utilize scarce street parking leaving would-be brewpub customers with nowhere to park.

In the year it took the resolve the matter, construction cost have soared. It is not clear what the increased costs will mean for the project.

Community Builders’ CEO, Bart Mitchell, said there is wiggle room in the project’s $96 million budget for cost increases.

“We’re confident we can build the building at the scale and with all the features we have designed,” Mitchell said. “But the extra time has had an impact, and that will mean resources that will get used here maybe we could’ve used elsewhere.”

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