Hey, there! Log in / Register

Six-story residential building could replace abandoned CVS on Comm. Ave. in Allston

A pair of developers has told the BPDA they will soon file plans to replace the former CVS at 1270 Commonwealth Ave. in Allston with a six-story, 206-unit residential building.

CVS shut the store on the 1.3-acre site after it opened a new one a couple blocks away on Harvard Avenue.

Hines and Benenson Capital Partners say their new building will also include ground-floor retail space.

1270 Commonwealth Ave. filings and calendar.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

i know boston is in dire need of housing, but good lord, the B line is beyond capacity.

up
Voting closed 0

Really. Any decade now. The new stops up by BU (the ones that consolidated four dinky stops into two) were built to handle them.

up
Voting closed 0

As someone who went to BU for 4 years, then lived in Brighton for 13 years beyond that, I've heard it all before about improving the B line, and yet it just keeps getting worse.

up
Voting closed 0

I live in Somerville now (on the new green line — whee!) but worked at BU and lived in Brighton for years. They keep eliminating stops without addressing the fundamental problems, which it never will.

As far as I can tell, the people doing the math on how great fewer stops will be don't actually ride the line or understand the problems. The first time they did this exercise there was a meeting right off of Comm Ave, and every single T official showed up in an SUV. They talked about how removing stops will save *minutes* from every trip.

But, uh, if you have 100 people at each of two stops trying to cram into one train, that's not made better by making some of those people walk a little further and then have 200 people trying to board in one place. The only way this actually helps is if the net effect is to reduce ridership.

When I first moved to the area, a friend told me: "You have to understand — the point of the T is to move trains and busses from one end of the line to the other. If people happen to use that to travel, fine, but they better not get in the way." Whether the goal is secretly to reduce ridership but they don't want to say it out loud, or if it's actually that they think it will work, this principle seems to still be in full effect.

If they actually want to make trips faster on the B line in a way that actually helps people get places:

* eliminate fare collection and open all doors. (This demonstrably was faster in the days back when that was standard practice outbound!)

* OMG sync the lights to the train

* pay attention to the school schedules and make sure there's more service when people get out of evening classes.

* ideally, really: underground service all the way out to Harvard Ave, with one stop at Packard's Corner, plus a *local* trolley (BU can pay for it) with hop-on, hop-off service back and forth above ground.

up
Voting closed 1

Stopping at a station adds time to a trip, even if no one boards. There is the same passenger-induced delay if 100 people board at 2 stops as 200 people boarding at 1 stop. Going from 2 stops to one does reduce the penalty from slowing down and stopping, and speeding up again. Having so many stops so close was a major source of the slowness. Minutes add up quick, and faster trips means more frequency with the same number of trains. More frequency means fewer people boarding at each stop, so each stop is faster, so the trips are faster, so the trains are more frequent...etc etc.

And the new fare system is bringing all-door boarding. So that bit is also getting taken care of.

And they're building Transit Signal Priority on the B C and E lines (and some bus lines), so that is also getting taken care of.

Maybe google something before you spout it as fact.

up
Voting closed 0

Wow, those bullets are in fact the plan. Did you not realize this before writing your screed?

up
Voting closed 0

It's in the newly released 5 year capital spending plan. So maybe less than a decade to see these new cars.

up
Voting closed 0

Not bad! Would love to see that across the City, and especially near T stations in the City and the suburbs.

If every single-story CVS with a big parking lot in the City became 200 units of housing, it would go a long way towards helping our twin housing and receipt length crises.

up
Voting closed 0

When are you gonna finally roll out Redditesque awards to give to posts?

If every single-story CVS with a big parking lot in the City became 200 units of housing, it would go a long way towards helping our twin housing and receipt length crises.

up
Voting closed 0

Maintaining the ground-floor retail is also a great idea.

We need more retail in residential areas if we want the city to become more walkable. Especially small grocery stores.

up
Voting closed 0

And you have a real neighborhood back!

up
Voting closed 0

I’m sure it was something before that as well.

up
Voting closed 0

When I lived nearby in the 70s it was a Finast Supermarket (First National Stores). Was definitely not the finest of supermarkets.

up
Voting closed 0