2 projects to revitalize Roxbury boulevard

For decades, Melnea Cass Boulevard in Roxbury has been no more than a high-traffic passageway to other parts of Boston.

But under new plans approved by Boston regulators, Melnea Cass is due for a dramatic change that will result in new shops and restaurants, a supermarket, a hotel, and dozens of homes.

Two teams of developers have been given the green light by City Hall to build a mixed-use community on vacant land on both sides of the boulevard between Washington Street and Shawmut Avenue. Their projects will form a new gateway to Dudley Square, which in recent years has also attracted a burst of redevelopment activity.

We are ecstatic that were starting to see some forward movement on these vacant parcels, said Darnell Williams, chairman of a Roxbury planning committee that has spent years trying to spur an economic revitalization in the area. We want it to be comparable to the retail and housing options in the other parts of Boston.

The two sites to be redeveloped, known as parcels 9 and 10, have been largely vacant since the 1960s, when they were cleared for a planned extension of Interstate 95 that was never built.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority initiated a process to redevelop them several years ago and earlier this month awarded building rights to Urbanica Design + Development and Madison-Tropical LLC, a partnership of Madison Park Development Corp. and the Tropical Foods supermarket.

Urbanica will build a $63 million complex on parcel 9 that will include a 150-room hotel, a two-story commercial and community building, and a five-story residential and retail structure.

The hotel will sit adjacent to Ramsey Park, and it will have ground-floor community spaces that link to the parks baseball fields.

The project will include 52 homes, with eight to be designated affordable. An executive with Urbanica said the firm wants to open at least one restaurant as well as a music club on the 1.3-acre property.

The neighborhood needs activities that strengthen the culture thats already there, said Kamran Zahedi, principal at Urbanica. Were not trying to bring the South End to Roxbury. Roxbury is going to take its own shape based on its landscape and demography.

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2 projects to revitalize Roxbury boulevard