Six-story condo building in Edward Everett Square wins approval
The Zoning Board of Appeals yesterday approved a six-story, 40-unit condo building at 1258-1272 Massachusetts Ave., next to the new Dorchester Brewing Co.
Developer Douglas George's single building - he had originally proposed dividing the project into two - will have 10 studios, 15 1-bedroom units and 15 2-bedroom units, along with commercial space on the first floor that he's hoping to lease to a restaurant, likely a pizza place. Five units will be sold as affordable.
The building will have 37 parking spaces - compared to the roughly 65 it would normally require. Attorney George Morancy noted its proximity to "multi-modal rapid transit."
To ease concerns of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, which has a union hall behind the site, George agreed to shrink the height of the building from 69 to 62 feet - by making each individual floor a bit shorter - and to move the building about 4 1/2 feet closer to Mass. Ave., increasing the distance from the rear property line.
A resident of a home across Mass. Ave. opposed the proposal, calling it "gigantic" and saying it would only add to traffic congestion on the street, which she said has grown worse since the brewery opened, and which she predicted will get even worse once the new shopping mall next to South Bay opens.
The BPDA approved the proposal in October.
1258-1272 Mass. Ave. filing with the BPDA (11.5M PDF).
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Comments
Great!
This building is perfect for this spot and is going to literally make something from the nothing that is there now. That stretch of Mass Ave is desperate for improvement and new life. With the slope of the street and the neighboring buildings, this is the perfect size. Too bad for Carpenters, but they should have known the used car lot was not long for this world when they built their hall with all those variances.
Can't wait to see this thing get built!
Carpenters asked for reasonable things
And they got them.
They will also get some jobs out of this, too.
Nice
Very Fort Point.
It's nice to see some people
It's nice to see some people are still doing hand-drawn elevations in this age of AutoCAD.
Is that what they call it now?
Multi-modal rapid transit = transit oriented development = developers don't have to spend money on parking. Tough sell or to rent. Look at the development next to JFK Station.
Oh really
And yet so many idiots parking on the street are whining about "newcomers gonna take MY parking".
I don't see their homes going vacant for the lack.
Only so many people can park
Only so many people can park there if you don't include any parking with the building. The original poster seems right.
Condos or Rentals?
Will these be condos or apartments? I have seen conflicting articles about possible rents and sales.
Also, any idea when they might break ground?
Traffic Concerns
Not sure how you can be concerned with traffic When Mass Ave in this location is basically a throughway.
Slowing down traffic and putting stores on the street is good news for building a walkable neighborhood around Edward Everett Square. South Bay City Center will go a long way to that as well.
Sadly I don't think South Bay strip mall will be going anywhere.
Not sure how you can say that
Not sure how you can say that just because a road is a throughway that there aren't traffic concerns. All roads can handle up to a certain amount of traffic. Every building like this adds more traffic, and doing this many times still ends up with more.
Err
Ever been in this square in Rush Hour?
It's near transit. I wouldn't be surprised if the worry is slowing down traffic further away from the square where you have people breaking the 25mph Boston speed limit to rush up to the backed up square.
Projects like this will make use of nearby transit and start to make the neighborhood more walkable. As that happens, the ground floor retail will bring more jobs to the area.