Housing Headlines

WORCESTER --- Developer Allen Fletcher's plan to turn a 1.3 acre site in Worcester's busy Kelley Square into a mixed-use development with ground floor commercial space and 48 upper-floor market rate apartments may get a significant local boost as City Manager Edward M. Augustus is recommending a tax break that could save the developer over $800,000.

Boston Globe correspondent Jill Terreri Ramos takes a look at how towns south of Boston are grappling with the state law known as Ch. 40B, which allows developers to override local zoning and build apartments in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing is affordable.

BOSTON --- While city inspectors continue to work declare the building safe, Trinity Financial is already making plans to rebuild the fire-torn 83-unit Treadmark apartment building, which caught fire on June 28, just days before it was scheduled to open. Trinity spokesman Matt Zahler said the company is working on a plan that may involve the demolition of the sixth floor.

QUINCY --- Three years after the city's designated master developer struck out due to money woes, it's evident that the city has methodically held to its vision for the reinvention of Quincy Center as Mayor Thomas Koch's administration has reached agreements with four developers, OK'd 400 apartments, commercial space, and large public infrastructure improvements, with more projects like the Quincy Center MBTA station redevelopment on the drawing board.

WORCESTER --- In a Sunday feature story chock full of pictures of many of the great mills in the Worcester area, reporter Elaine Thompson takes a look at how many symbols of the region's booming industrial past have been preserved as apartments, office space, breweries and other uses.

BOSTON --- Despite the high-profile failure to attract development bids for a prime parcel near Rt. 93 and Boston's southern gateway to downtown, the Baker Administration has been making progress with its Open for Business Initiative, with 27 state transportation parcels under development agreement that could represent 2,000 housing units and millions in tax revenues.