State officials are kicking in some cash toward creative redevelopment of public housing in Chelsea and Somerville.
The Baker administration said Wednesday it will give $300,000 apiece to housing authorities in the two inner-ring cities for design and planning work to help convert aging public housing complexes into larger mixed-income communities, with the help of private developers.
In Chelsea, the housing authority is partnering with an affiliate of developer Corcoran Jennison on a plan to redevelop its 66-year-old Innes Apartments. It would rebuild the existing 96 units that are subsidized for low-income families and add 224 market-rate apartments.
Meanwhile, the Somerville Housing Authority is working with private developer Gate Residential, the nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing, and the Somerville Community Corp. to turn the 216-unit Clarendon Hill Apartments complex on Alewife Brook Parkway into a 526-unit mixed-income community. The 216 units for low-income families will be rebuilt and preserved.
Both projects will receive state grants for planning and may pursue other state and local funds, but the bulk of their costs would be covered by opening up the sites to the larger-scale private development.
“There’s value in the land,” said Chrystal Kornegay, the state’s undersecretary for housing and community development. “The thing we’re trying to figure out is how, in this market, you can capture the value of that land and draw investment.”
Such partnerships are an increasingly popular strategy for refurbishing aging public housing in the region. Last fall, the Boston Housing Authority chose Corcoran Jennison and its partner SunCal to redevelop the 24-acre Bunker Hill housing complex in Charlestown, replacing 1,100 low-income apartments on site and adding hundreds more.
Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.