BOSTON—The Boston Housing Authority has issued a Request for Proposals to redevelop the Armory Street elderly/disabled public housing project here.

The plan released by the city calls for the redevelopment, not the demolition, of the existing building at the 125 Armory St. mid-rise property that consists of 215 units of federally subsidized elderly and disabled public housing in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston.

Kate Bennett, deputy administrator, planning and sustainability, Boston Housing Authority, says the RFP also allows for additional development at the 5.9-acre site that could add up to 200 units of affordable or in-fill housing there. The Armory St. building was built in 1973 and the BHA has owned the property since then.

"It's imperative that we think outside the box to preserve our existing affordable housing as well as develop new housing to meet the future housing needs of all of our city's residents,” says Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “Our elderly and disabled residents need and deserve quality affordable housing throughout our city.”

BHA issued a Request for Qualifications in November 2014 asking the non-profit and for-profit development community for ideas about how to preserve public housing units with decreased reliance on federal subsidies.

“We look forward to receiving creative ideas that will preserve and protect our affordable housing resources for the future,” says BHA administrator Bill McGonagle. “We are proceeding in this manner to ensure that the current residents and future residents of the city in need of affordable housing have this valuable resource to call home for generations to come.”

All proposals must be received by Sept.15, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. at the Boston Housing Authority offices at 52 Chauncy St. Bennett says that the BHA hopes to select a designated developer within 60 days after the RFP deadline. The project would probably require a year for pre-development, which would push construction back to sometime in 2017, she adds.

A selection committee comprised of residents of the Amory Street public housing development and BHA staff will review the proposals and select a developer. BHA and the selected developer will hold a series of resident and community meetings, as well as design charrettes as part of an open, public, neighborhood planning process that is expected to begin this fall. The BHA expects to issue a handful of additional RFPs in the near future after completing a resident and community process for respective sites. The BHA states that the future RFPS may offer opportunities “to use a new construction approach or which involve both new construction and renovation.”

The Armory Street project, as well as the planned future developments that look to add workforce and market rate apartments, could generate additional income to help sustain the low-income units in the BHA's portfolio over the long term. The planned creation of additional housing at the city public housing developments will also further Mayor Walsh's goal of creating 53,000 new units of housing in the city by 2030.