More Than Words

The Project

National Development donated time and professional expertise as the project and construction manager for the expansion of Boston-based nonprofit organization, More Than Words as they renovated and expanded their retail, office and storage location on East Berkeley Street in Boston into a new, two-story headquarters and event space which included a much larger ground-floor retail space.

The Mission

More Than Words, Inc., is a nonprofit social enterprise that empowers underserved local youth who may be in the foster care system, court-involved, homeless or out of school. More Than Words gives these adolescents and young adults the opportunity to learn valuable skills — taking charge of a business and selling books online and in-store. An important component of the expansion was bringing branding and activity to street level, better integrating More Than Words into the community and bringing more attention to the organization and its important mission.

National Development’s Work

The new 10,000-SF first floor space includes a book-processing warehouse, the MTW bookstore, a youth-development space and an event space. Beyond a typical tenant fit-out, the construction project included retrofitting the brick-and-beam building space with new slabs, HVAC, curtain wall, custom millwork bookcases, industrial processing equipment, elevator and loading dock.