ULI Trustee Profile

I am: Mossik Hacobian.

ULI Member since: May 15, 1995.

Where I live: East Boston, Massachusetts.

Favorite room in my home: Kitchen

Favorite way to spend time with family: Dinners and holidays together.

How I unwind: Reading; listening to international folk music; dinner and conversation with family and friends at our favorite Italian neighborhood restaurant; evening walks along the east Boston harbor walk with my wife; and playing backgammon using Armenian rules.

What makes me laugh: Funny jokes with surprising twists—but always about real life situations that have unexpected consequences.

What makes me angry: Racism, all forms of discrimination, social and economic disparity, and injustice within a community possessing enormous wealth and resources.

Last book I’ve read: The White Rock by Hugh Thompson.

Person I admire most: Martin Luther King.

The person I rely on most: My wife, Joan.

First (salaried) job: Bicycle messenger for a color photo lab in New York City.

What I do now for a living: Executive director of Urban Edge, a not-for-profit community development corporation (CDC) serving primarily the Boston neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and surrounding areas.

Project I am now working on: Several affordable housing developments: Egleston Crossing (64-unit rental); Amory Terrace (64-unit rental); BHA infills (15-unit homeownership); Roslindale Field (27-unit rental); Conway Court (29-unit acquisition and preservation); and a comprehensive mixed-use, transit-oriented development in Jackson Square with up to 400 housing units, two community educational and recreational facilities, and commercial and retail space.

Project that makes me proudest: The Egleston Square Youth Center, but also the one we are working on at the moment (Egleston Crossing). Each new project allows Urban Edge to use a new tool, to meet an additional need, and to collaborate with others and make the development infrastructure more creative.

Professional goal yet to achieve: End homelessness.

Why I would tell someone to join ULI: ULI has within its membership some of the best minds and most resourceful development professionals. ULI Boston District Council members have been very helpful in assisting Urban Edge and other community-based organizations to initiate and complete important inner-city projects that not only help Boston’s neighborhoods, but also bring together different interests from all parts of the city to help make a great community.