The shuttered Goddard House nursing home in Jamaica Plain could soon see new life as an apartment complex.
The Boston Redevelopment Authority Thursday gave its approval to a plan to rehab the historic building on South Huntington Ave., which closed as a nursing home in 2012, and build an addition and a second structure on the grounds for a 167-unit apartment complex.
Built as a nursing home in 1927, the Goddard House is far slimmer than a typical modern apartment building, said David Chilinski, an architect working on the project. But the developers – Eden Properties and Samuels & Associates – and neighborhood residents wanted to see the old building have a place in any new project.
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“There was a clear directive,” Chilinski said. “Preserving the building was the highest-order benefit if we could find a way to do it.”
So they’ll use the existing structure with an addition alongside, and put a second building on site as well.
It’s a contrast with the former Home for Little Wanderers next door, which was demolished in 2014 to make way for the new Olmsted Place apartment building. The buildings sit on a stretch of South Huntington along the Jamaica Way that is seeing a wave of new development, with another apartment building under construction a bit further north and others being proposed. The city’s Zoning Commission recently approved new zoning guidelines for the area.
Samuels aims to break ground on the Goddard House project in early 2017 after securing a few more city permits, said principal Peter Sougarides.
The BRA Thursday also approved a 295-unit apartment complex at the Boston Landing complex in Brighton. It’s the latest phase of the massive mixed-use development anchored by the new headquarters of New Balance, and developers said they hope to have the apartments open by the summer of 2018.
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The BRA’s board further authorized staff to hire advisors for the re-branding initiative they announced this week. The project, which the BRA hopes to complete by fall, could even include a new name for the agency, said chief of staff Heather Campisano.
Tim Logan can be reached at timothy.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.