BPDA Approves Harvard Allston Master Plan and 91 Affordable Units in One Session

BOSTON — March 13, 2025 — BPDA board approves Harvard's 10-year Allston campus master plan and a slate of housing projects in a single marathon session. The Boston Planning and Development Agency Board of Directors, chaired by Priscilla Rojas, voted unanimously on all items at its March 13 meeting, greenlighting the Harvard University 2025-2035 Allston Campus Institutional Master Plan, which proposes roughly 720,000 square feet of new construction across six projects including a 300,000-square-foot mixed-use Gateway Project at Barry's Corner. The board also approved five new residential projects totaling 171 units, 107 of them income-restricted, representing $307 million in investment. Standout approvals included 43 fully affordable homeownership units at 65 Seattle Street in Allston and 48 fully affordable homeownership units at 77 Terrace Street in Mission Hill, both 100-percent income-restricted. The board authorized a two-year extension of 12 urban renewal plans expiring March 31 — protecting 847 land disposition agreements covering more than 20,000 housing units — while a Home Rule petition to permanently replace urban renewal remains stalled in the state Senate. The board also approved a $787,270 property management contract with Collier's International New England LLC for the China Trade Building and authorized $200,000 in Harvard-Allston Partnership Fund grants to 25 neighborhood nonprofits, the first disbursement under the new IMP term.