October 13, 2023 - St. Katharine Drexel Parish/ Drexel Village Development in Roxbury

The partnership between co-developers the Planning Office for Urban Affairs (POUA) and JGE Development (JGE) and St. Katharine Drexel Parish (SKD) will transform the 346,022 square foot site in Roxbury into Drexel Village, much-needed affordable housing and community space. The 75% affordability development includes both rental and homeownership units, with 206 mixed-income rental units and 11 affordable homeownership townhouse units, across three buildings, and will serve as the gateway to the rapidly developing Tremont Street corridor. St. Katharine Drexel Parish is serving as the principal community partner to work with the development team, centering the project in the community.

The Drexel Village development is dedicated to Roxbury’s future by leveraging St. Katharine Drexel Parish’s long history of community service and meaningful engagement. Begun in 1890 as St. Francis de Sales Parish, and reconstituted over decades to become St. Katharine Drexel Parish, SKD is a Black Catholic community that serves the people of Roxbury and Dorchester. SKD welcomes all, offering an open hand to people of all ages who need access to affordable housing, a high-quality after school program, open green space, and a place to come together in a hub of joy and worship.

“The opportunity before us now to develop Drexel Village will not diminish nor eradicate the good work that has been done on Ruggles Street in the name of Jesus for the past 50 plus years,” said Rev. Oscar J. Pratt, II, Pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Parish. “To the contrary, it gives us the ability to build from the ground up an Afro-centric presence that speaks to the tenacity, dignity, and spiritual richness of the Children of God.”

By incorporating the Crescent Parcel with the adjacent Archdiocese of Boston Parcel, Drexel Village represents a unique and unprecedented opportunity to develop a matrix of spaces and community uses that will serve as a dynamic and vibrant gateway to Nubian Square. In addition to affordable rental and homeownership units, the development includes the renovation of the St. Katharine Drexel Parish Center, social service space, and retail/commercial space. The project also includes over 60,000 square feet of open space that will provide public art, passive recreation, and pedestrian connectivity to the neighborhood’s open space network along the Tremont Street corridor.

“We are excited about the future of Drexel Village and our partnership with St. Katharine Drexel Parish to honor the rich history of Roxbury and serve as a gateway to Nubian Square,” said co-developers Bill Grogan of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs and Jonathan Garland of JGE Development Enterprises.

The team of co-developers POUA and JGE, the latter of which is a 100% MBE development and design company, identified ways from the outset to include meaningful diverse participation; more than two-thirds of the team members are M/WBE firms. In addition to the developer partnership between POUA and JGE, the development team includes Janey Construction and UHM Management, who are both leading minority-owned businesses in their fields. In addition, the team has spent significant effort to maximize the participation of minority and female-owned businesses, making these businesses a priority in all phases of the development and operations.

The Drexel Village Community Benefits plan builds upon the powerful legacy of St. Katharine Drexel’s deeply-rooted commitment to the empowerment of neighborhood residents through educational opportunities and establishing programs that focus on the social development and well-being of neighborhood youth so they can reach their full potential. The programs include ABCD’s on-site Head Start program, and comprehensive asset/wealth creation and financial education designed programs to increase financial sustainability and the overall quality of life of Drexel Village residents, residential neighbors, and the broader Nubian Square community. The on-site garden will offer a broad array of fresh nutritional produce that will support SKD’s Food Pantry and foster a uniquely creative urban agriculture opportunity. Because the property is located on a prominent corner at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Tremont Street, the development team is working to create a plan for public art, honoring the rich history of Roxbury that will be presented during the public process, to obtain community feedback.

Located in a critically important area of Nubian Square, the team’s development approach is to create a new gateway to Nubian Square that builds on the history of St. Katharine Drexel Parish’s service to the community. It will bring together much-needed affordable and mixed-income housing, and commercial, educational and cultural services in a mixed-use development that will improve and enrich the neighborhood and will provide new and enhanced community amenities to benefit residents and the broader community. Drexel Village will become a central place for people to reside, recreate and engage with each other in a meaningful way; it will maximize the community benefits and will significantly broaden the affordability of housing in the neighborhood. In doing so, Drexel Village will build on the long standing Black Catholic presence of the former St. Francis de Sales Parish, now St. Katharine Drexel Parish, as it continues to serve as a beacon of light and the pulse of the community in Nubian Square.

###

About the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, Inc. (POUA)

The Planning Office for Urban Affairs, Inc. is a social justice ministry affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston that creates vibrant communities through the development of high-quality affordable and mixed-income housing and economic development efforts. As a prominent regional non-profit developer and a leading diocesan housing development ministry for the Catholic Church in America, POUA has completed over 3,000 units of affordable and mixed-income housing and has undertaken several neighborhood revitalization initiatives in Massachusetts.  

About JGE Development (JGE)

JGE Development is a Boston-based 100% minority-owned Architecture and Design firm with a comprehensive portfolio comprised of multi-family housing, mixed-use development, academic, life sciences, commercial, and university projects. Every project presents a uniquely different client team, programmatic goal, budgetary constraint, and regulatory approval process. JGE appreciates the profound impact design has on our communities, so we work collaboratively with our clients, design teams, and stakeholders to develop innovative solutions to complex challenges. We deliver buildings that capture the spirit of their surroundings while also emphasizing their own unique identities.

About St. Katharine Drexel Parish (SKD)

We practice our faith through service to our families, church, and communities—including all, excluding none. (Mission) We celebrate our values which challenge us to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race, and our collective vocation to restore our people to their traditional greatness. (Nguzo Saba) We are open to God’s Grace and count on the energy of the Spirit, as we anticipate the reality of Drexel Village a space where the words of Jesus will ring true, I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance. (John 10:10)