At its core, the Dorchester Bay City Project has been designed to be a catalyst for the community. Unlocking the potential of this pivotal site will drive diversity and inclusion across all levels.
Accordia Partners, LLC, a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), is focused on these priorities and has developed a strategy that will ensure unprecedented levels of participation of minority and women in Project investment, businesses, jobs, and job training.
Dorchester Bay City will deliver a wide range of benefits to the neighborhood and to Greater Boston:
Construction Jobs
Up to 25,000 construction jobs, with a focus on maximizing participation by local and diverse individuals to the greatest degree possible.
Permanent Jobs
Dorchester Bay City is expected to create between 13,000 to 17,000 long-term employment opportunities, as well as training and other programs that will help create bridges between long-term tenants at the project and the local, diverse workforces of Dorchester and Boston.
New Affordable Housing
Expanded housing opportunities, including new affordable housing, are a key element of the joint venture’s vision.
They will include both on-site affordable rental housing and off-site opportunities for affordable homeownership for residents in the community. We’ve committed $10 million to the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA) to fund its Saving Towards Affordable & Sustainable Homeownership (STASH) program for first-time homebuyers, providing homebuyer education and matched savings for a down payment on a home.
Transportation Benefits
Nearly $27 million of transportation funding contributions are associated with the project for designing, permitting, funding, and constructing transportation improvements.
Empower Local and Diverse Businesses
This project is focused on expanding construction opportunities through a contracting model that prioritizes identifying local and minority owned businesses - as both leads and subcontractors. Dorchester Bay City will also seek to attract diverse business operators as tenants for retail, restaurant, and commercial spaces. The plan sets aside 25,000 square feet of retail space for affordable, locally-owned retail.
The team plans to expand upon existing training and workforce development opportunities in order to improve the pipeline of diverse candidates for roles in the building trades, design, architecture, and engineering as well as other sectors of the CRE industry.
As a diverse team, Accordia is also focused on design and programming strategies in community, cultural, and other third spaces, in addition to the 15.2 acres of publicly accessible open space, which will reinforce that Dorchester Bay City is a diverse and multi-cultural place that is welcoming for all.
Connecting to the Community
Dorchester Bay City’s developers have spent years listening to the community, and still meet regularly with neighborhood groups, including Harbor Point and close to a dozen other civic groups. Up to 20,000 square feet of the project will be dedicated to traditional community spaces and cultural space, available to the operators rent free and programmed in partnership with community organizations.
“I think the place will be amazing when it’s done. But I think the real story will be the inclusion of the community in the process that got us there, and the next story will be the degree to which we leverage the economic development opportunity that this site will create,” Accordia Managing director Kirk Sykes told the Boston Business Journal. “It will be a national model that other people will be trying to replicate.”