Author Archives Trinity Financial

By Abby Goldenfarb and Eva Erlich

Few areas in Boston have experienced rapid growth quite the way that East Boston has. In the past few years alone, cranes have sprouted up across the neighborhood, reflecting the demand for housing and development close to downtown Boston and accessibility to Boston public transit. The cranes have been accompanied by a ripple effect of new restaurants, businesses and cultural destinations headed to Eastie, including an announcement from the ICA earlier this spring that they will open a new outpost on the East Boston waterfront. There’s no doubt about it – Eastie is hot! But years before other developers began visiting East Boston in droves, Trinity was already there, committed to creating transformative projects that would play a pivotal role in the evolution of Eastie.

Trinity Financial’s work in East Boston began over a decade ago with Maverick Landing. In 2001, the Boston Housing Authority was awarded a $35 million HOPE VI award for the complete renovation of Maverick Gardens, a deteriorating public housing complex on the Eastie waterfront. With the partnership of the East Boston Community Development Corporation (EBCDC), we transformed the site, demolishing all 413 units and replacing them with 396 units in newly constructed buildings including 20 townhouses, six six-story mid-rise buildings, and a community center. The final result? A new, mixed-income community called Maverick Landing, designed to provide a new corridor to Boston Harbor and reconnect Maverick to the rest of the East Boston community. Located conveniently near the Maverick MBTA stop, residents also have easy access to downtown Boston and the surrounding areas.

A short distance away from Maverick Landing on the Eastie waterfront sits Boston East, our newest development in the neighborhood. In 2006, Trinity and the EBCDC were designated developer by the City of Boston on this blighted parcel of land on Border Street. After years of working through complicated design challenges, complex waterfront permitting hurdles and the turbulence of the 2008 recession, Trinity was able to begin construction on the project in 2015.

Located between the Central Square and Maverick MBTA stations, we were able to transform what was once an industrial site into 200 breathtaking rental apartments, including six artist live-work apartments. Residents will be able to benefit from unique amenities like a kayak and paddle board launch; a yard with grills and a fire pit, a dog spa, a Hubway dock and Zipcar spots on-site.

Additionally, there is a dedicated space for artists, an open gallery space celebrating the neighborhood’s arts and culture providing ample opportunities for the community to come together for art exhibitions and community events. Currently leasing, we can’t wait for Boston East to open in early 2018 so the community can experience all that it has to offer.

Trinity’s presence in East Boston extends beyond the waterfront, too. Just last year we broke ground with the Boston Housing Authority and EBCDC at the Boston Housing Authority’s Orient Heights development, located in the hills of East Boston’s Orient Heights neighborhood. Built in 1951, Orient Heights is a 15-acre site comprised of 331 units of state-funded public housing, a community center and a central boiler plant, all terraced into a steep hillside and in great need of maintenance and modernization. Through multiple phases, this project will redevelop the entire Orient Heights development, yielding 373 units of new, beautiful housing, 331 of which will be replacement units.

At Trinity Financial, we’re proud to have been part of the East Boston landscape for years. While development in Eastie shows no signs of slowing down, we’re committed to continuing to look for sites- as we did in Maverick, Boston East and Orient Heights – where we can introduce transformative development that reflects the wants and needs of the community so that East Boston can thrive.