Vail Court Community Meeting

The City of Cambridge Housing Department and Affordable Housing Trust (CAHT) are hosting a virtual community meeting to provide updates about process to redevelop Vail Court (139 Bishop Allen Drive) as affordable housing on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.

This meeting will:

• Provide information and updates on the site.
• Share more about redeveloping the site as affordable housing.
• Gather community feedback.

Community members can register to attend the meeting here.

Vail Court Project Background Information

139 Bishop Allen Drive, familiarly known as Vail Court, is a 28,201 square foot lot located in Mid-Cambridge that was acquired by the City of Cambridge through eminent domain in 2016. In June 2017, the City Council voted to transfer the property to the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust (CAHT) for redevelopment as affordable housing. In July 2017, the City and CAHT held an initial community meeting to discuss the site and next steps, but the process was paused due to the onset of litigation. That litigation has now been resolved and the CAHT is restarting the process of planning for an affordable housing development for the site.

The CAHT plans to issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to seek and select a development team to create new affordable housing at the 139 Bishop Allen site. It is expected that the site will be developed under the provisions of the Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO). Once an affordable housing developer has been selected, a community process will be conducted to review redevelopment plans for the site.

Community Input on Vail Court

Register for the online Vail Court community meeting.

To receive updates about this project, sign up for the Vail Court mailing list.