Quincy Center

Brian Cribb/Flickr

The 169-unit West of Chestnut apartment complex held its official opening in mid-October. The milestone came as lead developer Gate Residential announced that 70 percent of the apartments had already been leased.

West of Chestnut is supposed to be just the beginning of a transformative development in Quincy Center that could add hundreds more apartments and thousands of square feet of retail—all conveniently located near a Red Line stop.

As the Globe asked in February, “Is it (finally) Quincy Center’s time to shine?” We’ll see.

Upper Dorchester

Matthew in Boston/Flickr

The northern reaches of Boston’s largest neighborhood by area had a particularly busy 2016. First, major developments moved forward, including the 362-unit and possibly 10-building Dot Block and the 475-unit, 10-acre expansion of the South Bay center (including a 130-room hotel).

Then there were any number of big-time residential sales in Savin Hill, Fields Corner, Jones Hill, Meeting House Hill, and Uphams Corner (a.k.a. Upper Dorchester, for lack of a better moniker)—all of them involving achingly gorgeous properties.

• Quincy’s West of Chestnut apartment complex to officially open [Curbed Boston]
• Downtown Quincy Project Praying to the Gentrification Gods [Curbed Boston]
• 10 projects set to transform Boston [Curbed Boston]
• Gorgeous Grampian Way colonial back on the market with a huge price-chop [Curbed Boston]