RODE and Kaplan working on Bornstein and Pearl Food center

RODE Architects and Kaplan Construction have been selected to design and build the Bornstein and Pearl Food Production Small Business Center, a redevelopment project in the Grove Hall neighborhood. Led by Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corp.(DBEDC), the project will revitalize the vacant former Pearl Meats manufacturing facility and adjacent land into a 35,000 s/f multi-tenant, light industrial business center with a focus on small-scale food production. The developer selected RODE and Kaplan Const. to build the project based on their experience rehabilitating historic structures. With an $8.6 million budget and close to 15% of the space pre-leased, the project will begin this summer. The master lease will be held by CropCircle Kitchen, which operates a similar facility in Jamaica Plain and is Boston's only non-profit shared commercial kitchen and business incubator. The company will operate a shared-use kitchen and commissary on site, and will be responsible for property management services and technical assistance for 40 to 60 small food producers. RODE's design for the new center will create energy and an environment of interaction for the many small businesses within. Based on an aesthetic that complements the existing industrial structure, RODE will use wood siding to create warmth in the interior, install and specify skylights to introduce natural light into the space, and use specialty fixtures to bring even more brightness into the core of the building. "There is a huge demand in Boston for small food production spaces, and this will be a big job center," said Jeanne DuBois, executive director of DBEDC. The Bornstein and Pearl Food Production Small Business Center project is a key part of a broad community effort that will redevelop more than four acres of blighted land, generate close to 80 jobs in the first three years, and bring more than $70 million of investment in affordable housing, commercial development, job training, and youth arts programming to the area.