A proposed 24-unit condo development in Roxbury could become the first such multifamily modular housing in Boston.

The proposed project, at 201 Hampden St. between Nubian Square and Upham’s Corner, would offer a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units that would be built at a factory, including its interiors, and put together on site.

The project had been approved in 2019 as a 13-unit building on about the same footprint. That initial design wouldn’t have used modular construction, however, and would have instead been more traditional construction using cross-laminated timber. But in the time since the first plan was approved, the economic factors around construction and material costs have shifted so much that the original plan is “not really feasible,” said Evan Smith, CEO at Greensmith Development, which is building the new residences.

However, it won’t be the first modular housing development in the city or even in the state.

In 2021, ICON Architecture built The Graphic, a 125-unit apartment building in Charlestown. In Taunton, a 390-unit development that began construction in May is expected to be the largest in the state. A 168-unit modular building opened in 2025 in Somerville.

Housing officials have considered modular housing as one potential avenue to more efficiently build housing in a region that has long struggled with having enough housing stock at levels residents could pay for.

In Boston, the city’s Housing Innovation Lab has considered the possibility of including modular housing in projects like its triple-decker-inspired “Co-Creating the Future-Decker,” which solicited community and developer ideas to brainstorm ways to design multifamily housing. Several proposals the initiative highlighted incorporated modular construction.

In 2024, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), a Greater Boston regional planning organization, announced the receipt of a $3 million federal grant from the Biden administration to explore new ways to build and install modular housing. In a statement at the time, MAPC’s then-Executive Director Marc Draisen said the grant would help address regional needs for more housing and expanded job opportunities.

“It’s important for our homes to be developed quicker, at a lower cost and with exceptional quality,” he said. “And we want people who live and work in this region to build and install those homes, which are currently imported from other states and provinces.”

MAPC announced it was working with Boston, Cambridge, Everett and Newton on the project, which aimed to research and advance the possibility of locating a modular housing manufacturing facility in Greater Boston.

Smith, too, said if everything goes according to plan, he could see the Hampden Street project serving as an example of the benefits of modular building.

Under the new design, the development would add 11 units through what Smith described as a more space-efficient layout. Smith said that for the Hampden Street project, if approved, the individual boxes could measure up to 40 feet and would be built by Reframe Systems, an Andover-based company that uses robotic and automated construction to assemble units. The construction technique will allow for a faster building time from when the construction team starts to lay the foundation to when the building is finished.

Smith estimated that a traditionally built building could take up to two years. In contrast, because the portions of the Hampden Street project would be built in a factory while the foundation is being laid — a two- or threemonth process by itself — the different parts of the building are expected to be ready to be installed about the time the foundation is finished.

Overall, Smith said he estimates the construction will take about eight months from when work on the foundations begins until the building is completed.

“It doesn’t mean necessarily that all the man hours are less that go into it, but the actual calendar days that go by on site are definitely shorter,” Smith said.

The building’s modular construction and lower associated costs mean that Smith said he expects the units to be available to purchase for a lower cost, too.

“We wanted to make this workforce housing. We really wanted to try to be able to get a price point that was $500,000 or less for at least a sizable portion of the units, and we wanted to do that without meeting massive subsidies like most of these projects need,” Smith said.

He said they hope to break ground in the fall, if all the planning and approval processes go smoothly.

“If this works out the way we’re seeing it, it should allow more housing to get built faster and at a good quality for a lower price than what we’re seeing for traditional construction,” Smith said.