Representative Ayanna Pressley’s husband’s political connections have put him on the receiving end of a multimillion-dollar development contract to co-develop a 400-unit residential project in Boston.
The Boston Planning and Development Agency selected DREAM Development and Related Beal to lead the project turning Boston Water Sewer Commission parking lots into housing. A proposal submitted by DREAM Development lists Pressley’s husband, Conan Harris, as a partner and investor, as Mass Daily News first reported this week.
Pressley’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Harris, who spent a decade in prison for drug trafficking, previously worked at Boston City Hall as a senior aide to then-Mayor Marty Walsh. “As Deputy Director of Public Safety, he played a leadership role in establishing Boston’s first ever Office of Returning Citizens, working with the formerly incarcerated to design the vision, programs, and services of the new office,” according to Harris’s bio.
Mayor Michelle Wu celebrated the April 2024 announcement of the development deal.
“This critical designation moves us forward to turn parking lots into housing that addresses residents’ needs. We look forward to partnering closely with Related Beal and DREAM Development to ensure the community’s vision for this critical development is realized.”
A press release said the project is in “direct response to the City’s 2022 land audit, which identified this site as a high-priority opportunity site for community planning and redevelopment. The new mixed-use development will help address the City’s most urgent needs including affordable housing, community development, and climate resilience.”
The city relied on the use of a Planned Development Area overlay to bypass normal zoning procedures and push through the project, according to Mass Daily News. Insiders told the outlet that the city “basically step by step crammed this down the community who opposes it.”
Eighty-nine percent of the 400 units would be “income-restricted rental and homeownership opportunities.”
DREAM development also counts John Barros as a partner and investor; Barros was the chief of economic development under Mayor Walsh.
News of the deal comes just weeks after the New York Post revealed Pressley claimed up to $8 million in assets last year, including $350,000 in profit from a property sale and rental income. That’s up from just $15,000 in rental income that Pressley declared back in 2020, when she owned just one property in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston.
Pressley now owns four rental properties, including a $1.1 million home on Martha’s Vineyard.
The progressive “Squad” member also declared between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in income from her husband’s management consulting business.