Let’s go for it.

No, the Olympics aren’t coming to Boston in 2024. Maybe that’s a good thing; maybe it’s not.

But we have done something remarkable, because this effort to go for the gold forced us to do something we do too little of: think big.

Back in early 2014, when the Olympics idea was barely a whisper around town, we saw an opportunity and wrote then:

“… here is a radical idea: Let’s aggressively pursue a bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2024, not only as a way to showcase our amazing region, but also to deal with two of the most difficult issues undermining our growth and prosperity – our needs for major housing production and transportation investment.”

The need for housing has never been greater. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council has demonstrated the need for 176,000 new housing units in metro Boston in the decade leading up to 2020 – and 435,000 units by 2040. Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration calls for 53,000 more units in Boston, just to keep pace with anticipated growth.

But here is where it gets interesting. That Boston 2024 Bid Plan 2.0 issued in June, following criticism that version 1.0 wasn’t fleshed out, is a blueprint. It is a wealth of information reflecting some solid thinking by some of our region’s most experienced real estate, economics and planning talent. The plan isn’t shovel-ready, but shame on us if we don’t grab the baton and make things happen.

Two brand new residential districts were envisioned: at Widett Circle, where 4,000 units could be built, 520 of which could be affordable, and at Columbia Point, where 3,000 units could be built.

Walsh wrote about Widett Circle recently in the Boston Globe, saying, “The truth is that our city has gained a lot of bold ideas from the Olympic bid process … and it’s critical that we take advantage of that work to move Boston forward. It shouldn’t be forgotten or ignored.”

Tom Alperin, who participated in the housing analysis as co-chair of the Boston 2024 real estate committee, said, “The cost of new housing is challenging. But with the combination of a mix of uses and a variety of housing, thoughtful planning and some public sector support, I think there’s a way for these projects to be feasible, and with a larger affordable component than is standard today.”

Beginning At Columbia Point

We will need both sites in the future, but no place is better to start than Columbia Point, right along I-93 and on the edge of Dorchester Bay. Widett Circle was to be developed in phases over 18 years. But at Columbia Point the plan was front-loaded.

This was to be the Athlete’s Village. “Whether or not the Games come to Boston, this site has unprecedented placemaking potential,” the Olympics 2.0 document said, somewhat prophetically.

The Columbia Point plan laid out in the 2.0 document called for approximately 2,450 multifamily units, 385 of them in the affordable range, plus 500 units of senior housing. This was all to be constructed by the time the Olympics took place, producing a total of 17,193 temporary beds.

Construction was to begin in May 2021, with completion in April 2024 and permanent residential lease-up of apartments over the next 30 months.

Private developers would of course have competed, starting in 2016, to develop the sites, and, if the Columbia Point plan were phased over a little more time, and if some of the higher-rise structures were built lower, there could be significant cost savings.

An additional advantage at Columbia Point would be the 2,700 beds for students, freeing up housing supply in the neighborhoods for nonstudents.

Smart cities have used the process of preparing an Olympic bid as a mechanism for transformative change. Preparing for the recent London Olympics, that city built about 3,000 new units of housing in East London. Post-Olympics, the city is adding thousands more. Conversely, the city of New York, in planning for a possible 2012 Games, began with what today is a very modest idea of locating a stadium in Manhattan. Today that idea is fast becoming a vibrant new neighborhood at Hudson Yards.

Whether the Olympic torch is ever lit in Boston is really not the issue. We need more housing and soon. Instead of squandering the hard work of Boston 2024, let’s embrace it and move ahead.