City Conveys Ritchie Street Property for Eventual Jackson Square Recreation Center

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The proposed Jackson Square Recreation Center includes year-round turf field.

Another piece for the eventual Jackson Square Recreation Center fell into place last week after the city conveyed a 5,970 sq. ft. vacant parcel on Richie Street to Urban Edge to be used for the project.

The Jackson Square Recreation Center includes an ice rink that would be a turf field during summer months.

Last week the Public Facilities Commission provided the city's 1 Richie St. site to Urban Edge for the Jackson Square Recreation Center, according to Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development.

The project is estimated to cost $30.6 million in total to complete. The city provided $2 million to the project in November 2017. Proponents for the recreation center are now working to secure another $6.8 million from private funders.

Jackson Square Partners LLC and the Urban Edge Housing Corporation are the developers for the project.

The BPDA board approved plans in March 2017 for the 75,000 square foot recreation center at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Ritchie Street across the street from the Jackson Square MBTA Station in Jamaica Plain.

The recreation center would be a three-story multi-use indoor space with an ice rink on the first floor 10 months of the year, with a mezzanine level (regarded as the second floor) that includes bleacher seating for the ice rink. The ice rink would be converted into a turf field during the summer months. The upper floor would be an indoor turf field year-round.

The creation of the recreation center has had a winding path as it was promised 17 years ago. Local youth have held rallies to demand funding and last year several Hyde Square Task Force youths discovered a state law that hadn’t been enforced calling for the Boston Garden to hold fundraisers every year to raise money for public recreation centers. After the youth's research, TD Garden announced that they would pay out $1.65 million to go towards the Jackson Square Recreation Center, and the state government said they would kick in another $1 million.

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