The space — which will eventually be located on the southwest corner of East Fourth Plain Boulevard and Norris Road — will consist of a ground-level public facility with gathering spaces, an outdoor plaza and shared offices for community services like business training and housing assistance. The first floor of the building will also include a commercial kitchen for a culinary training program.
“There’s going to be lots of opportunity for community gathering,” said Rebecca Kennedy, the city’s planning manager.
The top floors will include 106 apartments, with rent set to meet affordable housing metrics.
Altogether, the full facility is expected to cost $41.4 million. The vast majority of that, around $36 million, will go toward the residential units, Kennedy said. The common space will cost around $5.4 million.
In spring of 2019, the Legislature helped kick off the project with an $800,000 grant. City staff held a workshop in March — “just a couple weeks before everything was shut down,” Kennedy said — followed by a series of remote focus groups over the summer.
The city plans to break ground on the project by September of this year.
