Developer proposes 21-story tower for industrial stretch of Dorchester Avenue in South Boston, as first phase of a larger redevelopment

A Newton developer says it will soon file plans with the BPDA for a 21-story building with 265 residential units, offices and ground-floor retail space at 323-345 Dorchester Ave., next to the F.W. Webb building, the first step in turning at least ten acres of land now used for low-rise industrial and commercial buildings into a new mixed-use area.

In a letter of intent filed with the agency, National Development says the proposal for the building, on a site now occupied by a single-story industrial building and a parking lot, will include "significant open space, which will provide much needed outdoor amenity space for the neighborhood."

The letter adds that even before it files plans for the rest of the ten acres, it will use large parts of that land for "parking, events and other active and passive uses that are complimentary to the project, pending future development of those areas."

The company announced this past spring it had acquired the ten acres along Dorchester Avenue near its intersection with Old Colony Avenue.

The company says it will file for a "planned development area," which will let it and the BPDA toss the area's existing zoning and negotiate a development agreement for the overall site without the company having to go before the zoning board for variances for each of the buildings.

Among the company's projects: The sprawling University Station in Westwood, near the Rte. 128 train station, which combines a mall with residences and offices.