In its first foray into the Boston market, Beverly Hills-based Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund has partnered with Cathartes Private Investments of Boston to develop the project at 48-52 Brighton St. adjacent to the Sullivan Square MBTA station. It will mark what Canyon-Johnson managing partner K. Robert Turner tells GlobeSt.com is the first of several projects the firm hopes to build in Massachusetts.

"We want to invest in communities that are characterized by pro-growth--like Boston," says Turner, adding that city leaders, including Mayor Thomas M. Menino, "have convinced us that this is a city we want to do more deals in."

The project's first phase will begin almost immediately with the demolition of the former cardboard box factory that currently sits on the two-acre site. Turner says construction should begin in the third or fourth quarter with completion--and possibly full sell out--slated for the fourth quarter of 2008.

"Boston and the Charlestown submarket epitomize the type of densely populated, ethnically diverse communities in which our fund invests," says Turner, noting that the fund's investment guidelines include diverse and densely populated urban areas where there is a strong demand for urban housing.

Of the 146 units, 15 will be affordable with prices hovering around $185,000. The remaining units, which are divided into one- and two-bedroom loft style homes with open floor plans, will be priced at market rates starting at $330,000. For the money, buyers will get a fitness center, media room, public courtyard and same level garage parking space--a feature more commonly found in luxury units.

The development's major equity investor, Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund, is a joint venture between Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and Magic Johnson's Johnson Development Corp., and is the nation's largest real estate investment fund focused on urban revitalization.