Boston chooses Bilt-Rite as developer for foreclosed properties
Boston housing officials today selected a Roxbury-based developer to renovate four three-decker properties on foreclosure-ravaged Hendry Street, the epicenter of the city's real estate crisis.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority chose Bilt-Rite Construction, Inc. to fix up the boarded-up three-family Dorchester buildings and sell them to owner occupants who would rent out the other units.
The decision is seen as a key development in Boston Mayor Thomas Menino's innovative effort to stabilize struggling neighborhoods by buying the city's "worst of the worst" foreclosed properties and reselling them to motivated developers.
The city's Foreclosure Intervention Team is working to expand the initiative into other hard-hit areas. City officials already have targeted two neighborhood Roxbury communities for intervention - one along Dacia and Quincy streets and one in the area of Langdon and Clarence streets.
The staff picked Bilt-Rite Construction out of four developers under consideration. The company has completed 35 projects since 2000, a city report said, including the construction of the Modern, a 25-unit residential building in the South End and the renovation of the Dartmouth Hotel in Roxbury.
John Sullivan, co-owner of the 26-year-old business, said he needed to work out details with the city but was eager to get started.
"We are anxious to get it going, get it moving and get it done,'' said Sullivan. "And hopefully do more of them.''
(By Jenifer B. McKim, Globe staff)
