Economic Development

Commercial and Industrial Development

Since our founding in 1979 Dorchester Bay EDC has been dedicated to creating and sustaining commercial and economic opportunities in Dorchester and surrounding communities. We have developed 164,000 square feet of commercial space creating 323 jobs and through our small business assistance program created or retained 697 jobs. When we completed the Spire building it brought 100 jobs to Dorchester for their large, state of the art printing and marketing business and added 66 new jobs. We helped to create additional new jobs in the revitalization of the Uphams Corner commercial district. Recently, we developed four commercial retail spaces totaling 9,000 sf of space in our new, award winning Dudley Village project.

CVS/pharmacy and Brother’s Supermarket II

After the closing of America‘s Food Basket, we worked diligently with Uphams Corner Mainstreet to bring CVS/ pharmacy and The Brothers Supermarket to Uphams Corner. CVS and Brothers brought 35 jobs to the community with career ladders. Since CVS/pharmacy opened we see an increase of foot traffic in this area, which is beneficial to other merchants in Uphams Corner.

555 Dudley St. Property has 3 commercial spaces, 8,000 sf, under 9 housing units. This project is renovating the apartments and expanding the Food Project office, which is adjacent to a Latino bodega.

Industrial Development

We are very excited about industrial projects we are currently working on. These projects reflect our vision of the new "Green Economy" in Dorchester. We are currently working on two fronts: 1) Helping businesses "turn green", building on research done by a team of graduate students from Brandeis University. 2) Bringing green employers. We are developing 259 Quincy Street as a "green jobs" incubator space for 1-3 small businesses involved with clean technologies. We have surveyed local businesses to determine their potential interest in pursuing or expanding a green focus for their business, landscaping, weatherization, and "deconstruction" of old building materials. There are already two businesses we hope to relocate to one of our new "green" spaces. We are also developing projects through our work on the Fairmount Rail Line CDC Collaborative. The three CDC‘s are planning a "green" development corridor where along with "green jobs", green building techniques are used in residential and commercial development. Other techniques will conserve resources, improve residents‘ health and reduce the carbon footprint.

Bornstein & Pearl Small Business Center

The former Pearl Meats factory is a 36k SF building on a 2-acre site that immediately abuts Quincy Heights. DBEDC plans to redevelop the factory into a light industrial business center, with a focus on small scale food production.  DBEDC will create around 6-10 spaces equipped with heating, ventilation, scrubbable surfaces, floor drains, grease traps, and separate utility services, plus shared loading docks to accommodate a mix of food production businesses. Anchor tenants will include a frozen dessert wholesaler, a bakery and a caterer, all of whom will be expanding operations, creating multiple new permanent jobs.

By co-locating multiple food producers, we will be able to leverage the overall impact by providing opportunities for cross-marketing, bulk purchasing, sharing of office & admin space and staff, sharing expensive equipment like blast freezers, and installing building systems that maximize efficiency. DBEDC will contract with CropCircle Kitchen, the City of Boston's only non-profit shared commercial kitchen and business incubator , to provide on-site property management services and technical assistance. Given the success of their current location, CropCircle will also run a 2nd shared commercial kitchen on site. With a budget of @ $8.6 million & @ 15% of the space pre-leased, the Pearl project is on track for construction start in early 2013.