We are asking for your support of the Melnea Hotel and Residences project on Parcel 9, at the corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Washington Street.  After a three-year public process, the 108-room Residence Inn hotel component of the project is shovel-ready with all $28 million of financing in place.  This project will bring significant benefits to the community.  It is important that you support of this project be heard NOW!

• The hotel and +/- 8,000 square feet of new retail space on Melnea Cass Boulevard will activate a gateway site to Dudley Square, and add a commercial amenity for Lower Roxbury residents and businesses
• The hotel operator has committed to contribute $400,000 to a new PILOT fund administered by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to provide job training to local residents
• The hotel will produce 200 new construction jobs (100 FTE), with a significant commitment to local and minority hiring (51% Boston, 51% MBE including 30% Roxbury, and 17% women) at prevailing base wages
• The hotel will also create 40 new full-time and 6 new part-time (43 FTE) permanent jobs, paying livable wages of at least $18.00 per hour up to $25.40 per hour and providing attractive benefits to all full-time employees, including group medical and dental insurance, paid time-off, health reimbursement accounts, and 401k retirement accounts with company match funding
• It will attract 60,000 hotel visitors annually with their $3-$4 million of new food and entertainment spending available to support existing and new businesses in and around Dudley Square
• The hotel will also generate about $3.9 million of new sales tax revenue for the City and State in its first five years of operation
• The hotel operator brings a focus on creating economic benefit for the local neighborhood and its residents, while at the same time creating a long-term, sustainable business; it is an owner/operator, and has committed to a long-term investment in the project
• The hotel operator seeks to maximize the number of full-time permanent jobs, hires from the local community,  and provides training and upward mobility to all employees
• The operator will work with community organizations to hire neighborhood residents and with local businesses to provide services in the operation of the hotel, including landscaping, laundry, food products, graphic design and printing, and equipment repair and maintenance
• For example, the hotel operator has identified Haley House and Discover Roxbury as leading community organizations with whom it intends to work, to provide prepared food and to incorporate local art and culture in the decor of the hotel, respectively  

Please show your support for this project by using hashtag #ISupportP9 on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

If you would like to see this important project go forward, please sign this petition.  This will automatically let the City and your local elected officials know of your support.  Thank you!