Near the heart of Mattapan Square, public officials and community advocates on Tuesday celebrated the grand opening of The Loop at Mattapan Station, a $57 million development on a formerly underutilized parking lot by the trolley station that is meant to help tackle the area’s housing, transit, economic, and environmental needs.
As stakeholders cut the red ribbon marking the opening of the new development, they said they hope it will pave the way for a future with more grand neighborhood investments, specifically those that current community members can afford to be a part of.
”Mattapan and Boston need more affordable housing,“ said Mayor Michelle Wu. “A big way we can meet those needs is funding and building more affordable projects like this one.”
Wu said the city has worked to balance overdue neighborhood development without changing the neighborhood’s makeup by engaging residents in each stage of the development process, boosting homeownership among the community, and coupling new projects with features that address critical needs like food insecurity and open space.
“The processes that have led to these developments worked very closely with community residents,” Wu said.
Officials also noted that the site was once a barren, underutilized lot, and the development shows the potential of investment in Boston’s neighborhoods.
“We must remember that we have the courage and vision to start from scratch each time and make this happen,” said N. Paul TonThat, executive director of Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation. “It took all of you to raise a neighborhood on barren land, and this is, above all, a new neighborhood.”
The development was a partnership between Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, Preservation of Affordable Housing, and MassHousing.
The building, which includes commercial space, is built for mixed-income households. Of the 135 housing units, 42 are reserved for households making no more than 80 percent of the area’s median income level, or $112,150 for a family of four; 28 are for households making at or below 60 percent of the median; 47 are for those at no more than half the median; and 18 are for households earning up to 30 percent of the median.
Plans are also underway to build nine affordable homeownership units in a second building.
Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll said that The Loop received more than 3,000 applications for its 135 units, demonstrating the demand for such housing.
“That is common anytime there’s an affordable housing project, whether you’re in Boston, or Worcester, or Salem, or New Bedford,“ Driscoll said. ”That says to me, ’We’ve got more work to do.’”
The building features amenities like a fitness room, electric vehicle charging stations, and a patio deck. Paths at the rear of the building lead to the Neponset Greenway Trail. A parking lot offers 45 spots for residents and 50 for T commuters. A plan is also in the works to memorialize the Sergeant William E. Carter American Legion Post 16, the state’s oldest African American legion post, by hanging informative banners from light posts in front of the building.
The ground floor includes 10,000 square feet of retail space and a 2,000-square-foot community room. The Loop’s first retail tenant is Daily Table, a local nonprofit grocery chain that has other locations in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Cambridge.
Doug Rauch, founder and president of Daily Table, said the new location will address the area’s housing and food insecurity needs.
“In my mind, two things in the world that are most essential to raise a community up is a roof over your head and a healthy meal,” Rauch said.
State Representative Russell Holmes, who represents the area, recalled many projects over the years that never materialized. More than a decade ago, the Mattapan Community Development Corporation had plans to transform the site. Then, stakeholders floated the idea of building a charter school.
The repeated failed proposals can wear at the little trust the community already has in developers, so Holmes thanked the different partners for sticking through until the end.
The Loop is just one of several housing developments in the pipeline for the neighborhood. According to the Boston Planning & Development Agency, 11 housing proposals in Mattapan are either under review, approved, or under construction.
Then there’s PLAN: Mattapan, a comprehensive master plan for the future of the neighborhood’s economy, transit system, and housing situation.
Janet Getchell, who moved into The Loop a few months ago, said projects like her current residence show that the neighborhood “is being built into something we can be proud of.”
Tiana Woodard can be reached at tiana.woodard@globe.com. Follow her @tianarochon.