Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s husband, Conan Harris, won a multimillion-dollar project contract for his company courtesy of Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
The Boston Planning Department awarded DREAM Development a 400-unit housing project in April 2024. Harris, who served over a decade in prison for drug trafficking, is listed as a partner and investor in DREAM Development and stands to benefit from the $250 million deal, Mass Daily News first reported.
“They basically step by step crammed this down the community who opposes it,” one source familiar with the matter told the Mass Daily News. “And the BPDA and Zoning Board rubber-stamp it without addressing community concerns. Probably due to who the developer is.”
The Boston Planning and Development Agency designated DREAM Development and Related Beal as co-developers to turn the Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s parking lots in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston into affordable housing. The firm’s proposal put the project’s total development cost at $254 million.
Also listed as an investor in DREAM Development is John Barros, who served as chief of economic development for the City of Boston between 2014 and 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Wu touted the deal as a “public good” when it was announced in 2024, although former city officials and highly connected individuals stand to benefit from the deal.
“This critical designation moves us forward to turn parking lots into housing that addresses residents’ needs,” Wu said. “We look forward to partnering closely with Related Beal and DREAM Development to ensure the community’s vision for this critical development is realized.”
Wu, the Boston Planning Department, DREAM Development, and Pressley’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Harris, who married Pressley in 2014, previously worked as a deputy director of public safety at Boston City Hall and founded his management consulting firm, Conan Harris & Associates, in 2019, the same year Pressley took office.
The “Squad” member and her husband have come under scrutiny in recent weeks for financial disclosures, which reveal assets of up to $8 million, including a $1.1 million Martha’s Vineyard home, according to the New York Post. Despite Pressley’s image as an advocate for the working class, her congressionally mandated annual financial disclosure shows that she and her husband’s five rental properties brought in between $145,000 and $350,000 in 2024.
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