A $37 Million Dorchester Health Center, a 972-Bed Wentworth Tower and 37 Roxbury Homes Lead Boston's New-Construction Permits

Boston's Inspectional Services Department issued 12 new-construction permits in the 30 days ending Oct. 26, and the three largest cover a $36.97 million health center in Dorchester, a student residence hall at Wentworth Institute of Technology and a 37-unit homeownership building in Roxbury, according to the city's approved-building-permits dataset on Analyze Boston.

The biggest is permit ERT1505370, issued Sept. 30 for 8 Old Road in Dorchester with a declared valuation of $36,970,000. The permit describes a three-story, roughly 42,300-square-foot health center to be built across three parcels, 8 Old Road, 14 Ellington St. and 16 Ellington St., which will be combined and known as 8 Old Road. Two of the parcels are city-owned and the parcels are currently vacant or used for parking, according to the permit. The City of Boston's project page lists 8 Old Road and 14 Ellington St. as city Department of Neighborhood Development property, at 6,537 and 7,051 square feet, with Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center as the developer.

The Dorchester Reporter reported on Aug. 28 that the health center's CEO, Charley Murphy, hoped to close on the financing and hold a groundbreaking by the end of September, followed by an 18-month construction process. The new building will front Old Road and Ellington Street and house family medicine, dental care, specialties including OB-GYN, eye clinics and podiatry, labs and a pharmacy, according to the paper. Once it opens, operations at 632 Blue Hill Ave. will move over, clearing the way for a second phase that would replace the current health center and the old theater next door with about 100 units of affordable housing.

Second by valuation is permit ERT1828302, issued Oct. 22 for 380 Ruggles St. in Mission Hill, which the permit describes as a new 19-story residence hall with about 972 student beds, three community-director apartments, a dining hall, offices and event spaces. The permit lists 227,320 square feet and a declared valuation of $13,426,250, and notes that a separate foundation permit will be filed. The bed count matches Wentworth Institute of Technology's First Year Tower, which the school's website describes as an 18-story building with 972 beds, about 202,000 square feet, a Passive House design and substantial completion scheduled for Aug. 15, 2028. The two documents differ on the number of stories; the school says the building has 18 occupied stories. Wentworth's October construction update says end-bearing piles were finished in August and that a 100-foot crane will be replaced in December with a larger tower crane as the building begins to rise.

The third is permit ERT1741889, issued Oct. 8 for 44 Bartlett St. in Roxbury, valued at $10,360,000, for a 56,000-square-foot building with 37 homeownership units and 22 off-street parking spaces, according to the permit text.

Several smaller projects round out the 12. At 1200-1208 Bennington St. in East Boston, a permit valued at $4,501,000 covers razing existing structures and building an 18-unit mixed-use building with one retail space and 10 parking spaces. At 61 Linden St. in Dorchester, a $1,990,000 permit covers a three-story, six-unit multifamily building, and at 344 Bremen St. in East Boston a $1,955,965 permit covers a four-story, six-unit dwelling; that permit notes a flood-zone elevation certificate and a Conservation Commission filing. At 17 Bradbury St. in Allston, a $958,000 permit covers a three-story, three-family house. The list also includes a $800,000 three-family at 7 Browning Ave. in Dorchester, an $800,000 addition at 109 New Haven St. in West Roxbury that keeps the property a single-family home, a $150,000 two-family at 29 Rowe St. in Roslindale, a $625,206 foundation and archway project at 75 Blossom Court and a single-family house at 18 Intervale St. in Dorchester that lists a $0 valuation.

The permits do not say that construction has begun, and a permit's declared valuation is the applicant's figure, not an audited cost. The city's data does not explain what the $13.4 million valuation on the Wentworth permit includes, and the permit notes that a foundation permit will be filed separately. The dataset also includes larger alteration permits that are not new construction, such as the $13.3 million office renovation for Wayfair at 500 Boylston St. and 222 Berkeley St., but those are outside this count.

Taken together, the 12 permits cover at least 76 new housing units, counting 37 at Bartlett Street, 18 at Bennington Street, six each at Linden and Bremen streets, three each at Bradbury Street and Browning Avenue, two at Rowe Street and one at Intervale Street, in addition to the 972 student beds. The unit counts come from the permit descriptions.