Three life-sciences buildings approved as part of major Andrew Square redevelopment
![Rendering of part of Dot Ave project](https://www.universalhub.com/files/styles/main_image/public/images/2024/onthedot.jpg?itok=TNlXBNcv)
Rendering by Stantec.
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):
![Map showing the planned layout of 11 new buildings](/images/2024/onthedot-map.jpg)
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:
![On the Dot rendering](/images/2024/onthedot2.jpg)
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Comments
Innovative - Life Science
Smart of the developers to get in on this "life/science" building boom - I just hope we don't wind up with lots of empty lab space and insufficient housing. Oh, never mind, too late.
This is why Boston is in a
This is why Boston is in a doom cycle, the city keeps approving massive office and parking complexes. Cant the city see the souless Seaport and see that housing supply, not demand for housing (office buildings) are the only things that should be approved for awhile until people who work in industires outside of tech/business and trust funders can afford to live here long term? Now that rents are the same as NYC, what is Bostons selling point going to be, your stuck bc your job is here?
Reread the original post
This is only one phase of a larger project that also includes like 1,450 housing units (of which 17% will be affordable).
17 percent
Certainly not affordable to middle income people who work for a living.
How
How would anybody agree to fubd this project if it were doomed?
Ugly, unimaginative.
An acre of open space sounds nice but ugly, unimaginative landscaping is sure to be paired with these dull lumps.
1400 housing units -- how many jobs?
So how many full-time jobs will this development support once complete? I'm betting more than 1400.
If so, yet again, Boston is exacerbating the housing crisis rather than helping solve it, because it (along with Cambridge) has grown the number of jobs faster than the number of housing units.