Three life-sciences buildings approved as part of major Andrew Square redevelopment

The BPDA board yesterday approved Core Investments's plans for three life-sciences lab and office buildings - two 13 stories, one 12 - as part of its massive On the Dot project to remake a stretch of Dorchester Avenue from Andrew Square north along the Southampton train yard.

The buildings are part of the developer's long-term plans to turn 21 acres of former industrial land - including a scrapyard - into a new complex combining lab and office space and more than 1,400 residential units, tied into the BPDA's own long-term plans to remake the Dorchester Avenue corridor between Andrew Square and Broadway. Its northern border would be next to a large complex proposed by another developer.

After the final buildout (buildings approved yesterday on the left):

As part of the approval for the three buildings, Core will pay $16.7 million to the city for its affordable-housing fund and $3.1 million for job training.

The buildings will have ground-floor retail space; the plans include an acre of public open-space.

Because the buildings sit on a floodplain - the Southampton train yards were once part of South Bay, when South Bay was an actual bay - Core will elevate the site to guard against the increasingly fierce flooding anticipated with climate change.

The BPDA approved the company's overall master plan for the site last year and two of the residential buildings earlier this year.

Rendering of one of the three buildings:

505 Dorchester Ave. and Ellery Street filings.