Housing Headlines

FALL RIVER --- The owners of the Swansea Mall are planning to apply to the town for a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit so they can build 221 rental apartments. The mall has been struggling of late, with Sears announcing it is closing in April and the owners twice holding auctions to sell the mall.. Town officials expressed caution, wishing that the new plan was part of a larger strategy to revive commercial activity at the site.

QUINCY – Developers have scrapped the idea of building a seven-story hotel in the 1500 block of Hancock Street in Quincy Center in favor of constructing an apartment building there of the same size. LBC Partners of Boston presented to Quincy's city council on Tuesday night a plan to build 171 apartments over 15,000 square feet of commercial space at 1500 Hancock St., which the organization already owns. The building will also feature an atrium and one city official said the building could be the "centerpiece" of the downtown area.

BOSTON --- In his regular Talking Points roundup, Boston Globe business writer Jon Chesto speculates that the developers of Washington Place do not have the necessary votes to gain approval to knock down several old buildings and replace it with a mixed-use development with 160 mixed-income apartments. Because of a challenge from abutters, developer Robert Korff needs to get the OK from 18 of 24 city council members to move forward with his plan to remake the Washington-Walnut Street intersection in Newtonville near the MassPike and the commuter rail.

The number of low-income children in many affluent communities is rising at a much faster rate than it is statewide, in some cases doubling over the past decade, according to an analysis of state data by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The Globe reported that Sudbury, Winchester, Hopkinton, Hingham and Littleton have at least twice as many needy students as they did 10 years ago and significant increases were also found in Wellesley, Duxbury, Lexington, Needham, Belmont, and Westwood.

MILTON --- Connelly Construction's plans to turn the former Hendries' Ice Cream factory site into housing cleared its final hurdle recently as the Conservation Commission OK'd the project, clearing the way for the company to knock down the building and replace it with a four-story condominium with 36 units.

BOSTON --- Using federal and local funds - including $8 million from the city's housing trust - the City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development has announced $22 million in funding to support 10 developments and 602 apartments. Awards went to proposals in Dorchester (4), Jamaica Plain (2), Mattapan (1), Roxbury (1), Fenway (1) and downtown.