It was just months into the pandemic when Scott Webster went door to door with flyers and endless enthusiasm, keen to share that he would be finally redeveloping the modest single-family house and squat brick storefront his family owns at 1 Elmwood St. He purchased the property behind Roxbury Community College 29 years ago as an investment and made it his home in 2010. Now, Webster pitched what the property could become: a 65-foot, seven-story building with 47 furnished mini-apartments , with a basement devoted to co-working and showcasing local art.
Special timber flooring would keep energy costs down, he said, and rents would be roughly $2,400 a month. Webster pledged his own money and the help of his two sons, who would manage and live in the building themselves. There would be expanded sidewalks, new trees, and free BlueBikes membership for residents.
Imagine something more grass-roots, Webster said, than the luxury towers snaking down Tremont Street from Northeastern University. Anyways, he mused, why not let a local Black family get in on the deal to build something the city needs, while creating generational wealth for themselves? Advertisement It was a vision born of good intentions. Four years later, it is near collapse.
“Turns out, different isn’t working,” Webster said one rainy afternoon this summer. “I wouldn’t wish this process on anyone else.” Webster expected pushback, of course.
What he did not expect was an eternal saga of scathing meetings and s.