The South End’s Harrison Avenue and Albany Street corridors continue to be a popular center of Boston multifamily development.

Construction began Tuesday on The Smith, a 650-unit residential project formerly known as the Harrison/Albany project. The project will be spread across three buildings and is being jointly developed by Leggat McCall Properties and Bentall Kennedy with Bozzuto Development Co. serving as the development adviser.

“The Smith creates much-needed new affordable and market rate housing, along with substantial public open space and street-level retail that improves the pedestrian experience,” Leggat McCall Properties Executive Vice President William Gause said in a prepared statement.

The Smith will include on-site affordable housing, roughly 77K SF of office and nearly 20K SF of retail. There will be 650 underground parking spaces, and 36% of the 3.1-acre property will be open space. Cultural space will also be created for neighborhood use.

The project is the latest chapter for the South End's residential boom, as the neighborhood has seen projects like National Development's Ink Block and UDR's 345 Harrison.

“The Smith will continue the transformation of the Harrison Albany Block into a vibrant, residential and mixed-use neighborhood, a result of the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s Harrison Albany Strategic Plan,” Boston Planning & Development Agency Director Brian Golden said in a prepared statement. “Along with market-rate and affordable residential units, this project will create hundreds of jobs, and bring cultural space and transportation infrastructure improvements to the South End.”