Multifamily EV Charging Done Right: Lessons from Boston's 64-Charger Installation

Sixty-four Level 2 charging ports went live at a 247-unit apartment development in Hyde Park this year, currently the largest multifamily EV charging installation in Boston. It is worth studying, but not for the reason most property managers expect. The interesting part is not the hardware. It is who paid for it.

What Boston Actually Built

Loop Global installed 64 Flex 32A Level 2 chargers at 36 to 40 Sprague Street, covering roughly 25% of available parking spaces, as reported by Electrek. Commonwealth Development Partners developed the property and DMH Electric handled the electrical work. Loop also supplied its networked charging software, which gives residents real-time monitoring and energy management tools.

Two details matter for anyone thinking of copying it. These are networked, property-owned chargers, not resident equipment. And they cover a quarter of the parking, not all of it. Design work and rebate applications started in early 2025, installation began that October, and commissioning finished in early 2026. Call it a year from paperwork to power.

Who Actually Paid for It?

Eversource incentives covered around 70% of the project's total cost, spanning both the electrical infrastructure and the charging hardware, coordinated with the utility during design.

The barrier to multifamily charging is almost never the technology, it is the capital, and here a utility program absorbed most of it. A property manager who prices a project off retail hardware and installation quotes and stops there is looking at the wrong number entirely. The first question is what your utility's make-ready program will fund and how long the application takes, because that is what determines whether a project is viable at all.

These programs vary enormously between utilities and states, and they change. Get a current answer from your own utility rather than assuming Massachusetts figures travel.

It is also worth being realistic about the demand side. A National Multifamily Housing Council survey found renters interested in EV charging would pay roughly $28.12 more per month for access. That is a real amenity premium. It is not a transformation of the rent roll, and a project that only pencils out on optimistic rent assumptions probably does not pencil out.

What a Project Like This Does Not Solve

Twenty-five percent coverage is a deliberate choice, not a shortfall. Wiring every space is rarely justified at current EV share, and pathways can be sized so ports get added as demand grows.

But it does mean three quarters of residents at that development still have no assigned charging, and the overwhelming majority of apartment buildings in the country have none at all. A year-long, utility-funded, purpose-built deployment is the right answer for a new 247-unit property with a developer willing to plan around it. It is not an answer available to someone who signed a lease last month in a building with no program and no plans.

Where Portable Charging Fits, and Where It Does Not

Start with the boundary. A portable Level 2 charger is not a substitute for what Boston installed. It charges one vehicle from one outlet. It does not coordinate between chargers, allocate a building's spare capacity, or meter and bill residents individually. Those are functions of a networked system, and a property that needs them should buy them.

What portable equipment covers is the situations a fixed installation cannot. A resident in one of the unserved spaces, or in a building with no program at all, can charge from a suitable existing outlet. Equipment a resident owns moves with them at the end of a lease, which a wall-mounted station does not. And a property testing demand before committing capital can find out who actually charges before sizing a permanent build.

If a property does allow resident-owned equipment, write the policy down first. Require certified charging equipment and prohibit extension cords outright. The J+ BOOSTER 2 is ETL certified to UL standards, delivers up to 9.6 kW from a NEMA 14-50 adapter, and carries fault detection for seven fault types with LED indication on the device, which keeps most troubleshooting off the property manager's desk.

What Does Massachusetts Law Require?

Massachusetts right-to-charge protections took effect on May 15, 2025 under Chapter 239 of the Acts of 2024. Condominium and homeowner associations, historic district commissions, and neighborhood conservation commissions cannot prohibit or unreasonably restrict an EV charger installation that meets safety and installation standards, and the law streamlines approval for common-area installations.

For renters specifically, a property owner must reasonably accommodate a request but is not required to pay for the installation or its associated costs. Property owners may also charge a fee for use of the stations. Writing a clear access policy before residents start making individual requests is considerably easier than negotiating each one as it arrives.

Settle these before design starts:

• What your utility's make-ready program funds, and how long the application actually takes
• What share of spaces to energize now, and whether pathways are sized for later expansion
• Who owns the equipment: the property, a network operator, or the resident
• How residents are billed, and whether that is submetered or bundled into rent
• How residents without assigned spaces get access, and how long they can occupy a port
• A written policy on cords, equipment certification, and who maintains what

The projects that get built are the ones where somebody found the utility money first and designed around it second.

Property managers weighing resident-owned equipment as an interim step can compare portable EV chargers and charging adapters at jplusbooster.com, or contact the team to talk through what fits a specific property.