Jerome Rappaport Jr.

AB ’79, MCP ’81

Jerome Rappaport Jr., Managing Partner of Lena New Boston and Founder/Owner of New Boston Fund Inc. brings 40 years of real estate investment and development experience to CRP Development’s mission to develop smart growth apartment communities in transit-related, infill neighborhoods. At Lena New Boston, Mr. Rappaport is spearheading a $200 million redevelopment of the former Boston State Hospital site in Mattapan/Dorchester, representing the largest non-institutional development in the neighborhood incorporating 500 units of mixed income rental and home ownership housing. This project addresses the Governor’s and Mayor’s housing priorities of affordable rental housing for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable populations and extends his mission of to provide quality workforce and affordable housing to help achieve Massachusetts global competitiveness. Mr. Rappaport developed this mission as co-chair of the Commonwealth Housing Task Force and as 20 year President of New Boston Fund and its Urban Strategy America Fund. Mr. Rappaport’s passion for urban revitalization began in the 1980’s when he redeveloped Hartford’s Union Station and served as consultant to the HUD’s Urban Development Action Grant Program.

Mr. Rappaport founded New Boston Fund, Inc. in 1992. Under his leadership, New Boston raised more than $1 billion in discretionary equity and built and acquired over $4 billion of assets comprising 20 million square feet of commercial property and over 7,000 housing units. At the core of New Boston’s success was Mr. Rappaport’s longstanding commitment to support the communities where the firm invested, highlighted by New Boston’s $200 million Urban Strategy America (USA) Fund which focused on returns, housing and economic development, and environmental sustainability. Noteworthy developments included One Brigham Circle in Boston, the redevelopment of the abandoned Boston State Hospital site in Mattapan and 250 units on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Mr. Rappaport is a past President of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and founding Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Housing Taskforce. He has had leadership roles with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Rental Housing Association (RHA). Mr. Rappaport is a long-term visiting lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government and is a founding member of the International Advisory Board of the Harvard Real Estate Academic Initiative. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Real Estate Finance Association in 2005 and B’nai B’rith International’s Distinguished Achievement Award and Ernst & Young’s New England Entrepreneur of the Year in real estate/construction in 1999. The RHA honored him with the Industry Excellence Award in 2010. Mr. Rappaport received an economics degree from Harvard College and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.