Five-building residential and life-sciences complex with a museum could rise on long vacant parcel on Tremont Street across from police headquarters

A development group headed by HYM and My City at Peace yesterday won preliminary BPDA approval to build 466 apartments and condos, life-sciences space and a civil-rights museum on the long-vacant P-3 parcel on Tremont Street in Roxbury, under a plan that would include an acre of public space with a layout aimed at stitching the empty land back into the surrounding neighborhood - and creating wealth-building opportunities for its residents.

An earlier effort by a different group to develop the 7-7-acre parcel failed after more than a decade. HYM is currently building two towers on the site of the Government Center Garage downtown and has won BPDA approval for the massive Suffolk Downs replacement, which would include 10,000 units of housing and numerous office buildings.

Bird's eye view, Madison Park High School on top left, BPD HQ on top right:

Under preliminary plans submitted by HYM and MyCAP, some 66% of the new housing units would be rented or sold as affordable - with subsidies to pay for those units coming from rents on life-sciences tenants.

The life-sciences lab and office space would include a dedicated instructional facility, LabCentral Ignite, aimed at training residents for jobs in the burgeoning field.

The King Boston museum, to be run by Embrace Boston, which recently unveiled the King memorial on Boston Common, will include will include "a permanent collection about Boston’s complicated and inspiring civil rights history, as well as rotating exhibitions featuring nationally renowned BIPOC artists, and helping to uplift the next generation of BIPOC culture creators."

Ground-floor space would include cafes and restaurants; the acre of public space will include tree-lined seating areas, a large space designed for everything from outdoor movie screenings to protests and the complex's roads will include dedicated bike lanes.