Developer wants to replace low-rise Huntington Avenue hotel with 10-story apartment building

By adamg on Fri, 08/14/2020 - 11:19am

National Development of Newton says it will soon file formal plans to replace the Midtown Hotel, 220 Huntington Ave., with a ten-story, 325-unit "apartment community."

In a letter of intent filed with the BPDA this week, the developer says it will also raze an adjoining building at 1 Cumberland St.

The company says it will not require any zoning relief for the new building, although it will have to show how the new structure won't affect the groundwater table in the surrounding area.

Construction work can't begin until, at the earliest, next spring. Northeastern University recently announced it will rent the entire hotel this academic year to house 297 students and 8 staffers as part of its Covid-19 "de-densification" plans.

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Comments

More luxury apartments:

By anon on Fri, 08/14/2020 - 11:35am.

More luxury apartments: yippee.

Yippee is right.

By anon on Fri, 08/14/2020 - 6:07pm.

There's a market for luxury apartments. I'd rather they be built where a big building belongs, and in a way that displaces exactly zero current residents.

Housing prices are driven by

By anon on Fri, 08/14/2020 - 8:04pm.

Housing prices are driven by scarcity. The city needs to be building as many units of housing as possible in the places people want to live. Zoning reform would help immensely. It shouldn't take years to build a 5-6 story building on a main street next to an MBTA route and yet it still does.

stop peddling this nonsense

By anon on Sat, 08/15/2020 - 12:16pm.

housing development doesn't simply respond to demand, it also helps create it.

or are there hundreds of people right now clamoring to live right where the midtown hotel is?

.. or were there thousands of gentrifiers clamoring to live in East Boston before the first luxury eyesores went up? No, they were drawn there by the image the developers created.

I know this hotel makes a lot

By anon on Fri, 08/14/2020 - 1:35pm.

I know this hotel makes a lot of people angry for some reason, but I'm sorry to see affordable hotels close.

Also it's a shame about 1 Cumberland. It's a beautiful building.

Yup

By Don't Panic on Sun, 08/16/2020 - 11:23pm.

To both statements. Northeastern has a definite lock on it right now though so you couldn't get a room if you wanted one.

My main hope is not all the 325 apartments are luxury units. Not that so-called affordable units are any where near what someone making minimum wage could afford.