In addition to providing needed housing in the city, and significant upgrades with the replacement and updating of 96 public Chelsea Housing Authority (CHA) units, the Innes redevelopment project is providing construction job opportunities for Chelsea residents.
The Innes Resident Association is hosting a Construction Opportunity Fair on Wednesday, April 19 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Jordan Boys and Girls Club of Boston at 30 Willow St. in Chelsea.
All jobseekers are invited to attend the job fair, although all Chelsea residents and CHA tenants are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity.
The contractors and subcontractors for the Innes redevelopment project are hiring for the ongoing Innes project, and there will also be opportunities to learn more about how to get into the construction business for those who are interested. When it is finished, there will be 330 units at the new Innes site, including the 96 public housing replacement units and 40 middle income units in addition to the market rate units.
The job fair is being organized by Plumb House, Joseph J. Corcoran and Company, and John M. Corcoran and Company.
“It’s very close to the construction site and you’ll go by there and get excited and hopefully be working at the construction site,” said Jen Corcoran, the project manager for the development from the Corcoran Company. “We’ve got contractors and subcontractors coming who represent who is working on the development currently, and we’ve got over 15 different subcontractors attending, including our management company, Corcoran Management. There are over 40 positions available, both with Plumb House, who is our general contractor, and then some of the subcontractors have open positions as well.”
Corcoran said she is also hoping to see people come out who might not see themselves working in one of the construction fields, but could find out more about the field from some of the subcontractors attending the job fair.
Hiring Chelsea residents has been one of the goals for the developers during the project.
“We’ve only really marketed in and around Chelsea,” said Corcoran. “We won’t be doing a litmus test at the door, necessarily, but we’re making a special effort, especially reaching out to the Innes residents … so we want to make sure we get as many of them out to the fair as possible, and CHA residents, as well.”
CHA Executive Director Paul Nowicki said that one of the things that was very high on the housing authority’s list when hiring a developer was the fact that the Corcoran companies made a true commitment to putting the CHA residents first.
“When you look at the other developments of this magnitude, they will do a ‘rich door, poor door,’ meaning the public housing residents will have a lesser of a building than the market rate,” said Nowicki. “That is not the case here, and that was something that was very special to us and Chelsea Housing that everything that is in the market unit will be in the public housing units. Also, the commitment to the residents, they are going to have a residents services portion for all of the residents at the new development, and also their outreach and their caring to the neighborhood … that really meant something to us at Chelsea Housing.”