Another high-rise has sprung up in Allston-Brighton that will largely offer luxury apartments, continuing years of development in the booming neighborhood alongside the Mass Pike.
The apartment complex is the first of several additional buildings going up in the area as part of a massive housing project called Allston Yards that will also include office and lab space.
During a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, Boston city officials and staff with New England Development — the company responsible for the project — praised it for bringing more housing and jobs to the community.
“When we’re all said and done, we hope to have almost a thousand homes here with about 170 affordable units,” said John Twohig, executive vice president of New England Development. “Something very different in the community and of a scale that really hasn’t been seen.”
The new building features 165 units — 21 of which are restricted for people with lower incomes — and features a new Stop & Shop on the ground and second floors. Nearby, workers are building a one-acre green space that will be named after Rita Hester, the Black transgender woman who was killed in the Allston area in 1998.
As part of the opening of the Stop & Shop, the grocery chain donated $50,000 to four nearby Boston public schools. Some money from the broader development project is also going toward an Allston-Brighton homeownership fund to help first-time homebuyers with down payments. Officials said 27 families have already benefited from the program.
Once complete, New England Development said the entire Allston Yards housing project will have created about $35 million in infrastructure advancements in the surrounding area, including improving access to the nearby Boston Landing commuter rail station.
“I want to celebrate what this development team came together to do,” Boston planning chief James Arthur Jemison said. “It’s what we need to do all over the city every single day.”
But people who live in Allston-Brighton had mixed feelings about the new apartment complex and what it means for the neighborhood that, at one point, consisted of cattle stockyards. Some residents said the development boom is driving up prices and clogging up streets.
Boston City Councilor Liz Breadon, who represents the area, said she was happy to see the new Stop & Shop open and green space be developed. But with rents ranging from about $3,200 for a studio to over $6,500 for a three-bedroom unit, Breadon said the new apartment complex will be too expensive for a lot of people.
“We have a lot of pressure on our housing out here,” Breadon said. “A lot of our family homes are being bought up by investors. ... No family can afford $5,000 rent — unless they’re incredibly wealthy.”
Other residents said they welcomed the development boom because it will attract more visitors to Allston-Brighton and provide more dining options.
Kristen Franks, who’s lived in the area for more than 40 years, argued the new expensive apartment complexes could even help with the city’s housing crisis.
“If there’s more of a supply, people will eventually have no choice but to reduce their prices,” she said.
