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Developers who would remake old South Boston power plant cut proposed number of housing units again
By adamg on Thu, 11/14/2019 - 4:49pm
Hilco Redevelopment Partners and Redgate Capital Partners have filed new plans with the BPDA for their L Street project that now call for 636 residential units - down from the 750 they proposed in July and the 1,344 they initially proposed on the 15.2-acre site.
The new numbers are contained in a "planned development area master plan," filed with the BPDA this month that would essentially replace the land's zoning with an agreement between the developer and the former BRA, and which focuses more on such things as maximum square footage and dimensions for the different buildings on the land, which the companies say will take 10 to 15 years to fully build out.
Along with the cut in housing units, the developers have proposed increasing the amount of space for office and R&D use, from 800,000 square feet proposed in July to 960,000 square feet, but shrinking a proposed hotel from 344 rooms to 240. A proposed "civic/cultural" space would be decreased from the 14,000 square feet proposed earlier this year to 10,000 square feet.
Unchanged in the newest filings are 80,000 square feet of retail space and up to 1,214 parking spaces across the complex.
776 Summer Street PDA master plan (14M PDF).
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Comments
Too much housing
Still too many luxury apartments included in this plan. The port generates ten thousand (+) jobs from the economic impact of trade. As we have seen close to home in Charlestown, luxury housing and active seaports don’t mix.
Please don’t sacrifice these high-paying quality jobs for the sake of a couple humbled “luxury” units and a small handful of “affordable” units. The cost is not worth the trade off!!!
If the property is so important
for the success of the port, why didn’t they buy the power plant it for the decade or so it was abandoned? They must’ve foreseen it would be redeveloped into a non industrial use. Instead Massport built a bridge around it.
Sould have knocked down SB Plant and abandoned Everett plant
THEN considered reuse.The state is running backwards on these properties. The old brick and steel Edison plant with the three identical smokestacks next to Encore is also dead. Nearly all of South Boston, Charlestown, Everett, Somerville, and Medford would benefit from their demolition.
With what magical money?
They're still up for a reason. Demolition is extremely expensive.
Boston has something like a
Boston has something like a 30,000 housing unit shortage because of population growth.
Sites like this close to employment centers should be getting packed to the gills if you ever want to see affordable housing prices exist in this city again.
Supply must exceed demand and Boston is way behind on delivering the supply.
Better solution would be to
Better solution would be to restrict population growth to more manageable levels so that over development is not constant and quality of life for current residents preserved.
backward
You favor some kind of totalitarian regime with a one child policy? Or do you think that it is possible to prevent new people moving in by refusing to build homes and infrastructure for them. All you will get by that, is more homeless people displaced into your parks.
Boston is actually still under populated. In the 50's there were 100,000 more people living here in a successful booming economy. And those boomer children grew up in a Boston that emptied out. They were able to afford their homes and park their cars out front.
There is no overdeveloped areas in Boston. There are places that need to replace the infrastructure that supported the original populations. Can you name a 4 lane street in South Boston that didn't have a street car down the middle?
So you think
The people who would be living in these 30,000 units are living on the streets? It comes down to this: not everyone can live in Boston.
sacrifice jobs?
The power plant is closed.
Charles, the port can stay
Whatever happens in the new development, it does not impact that port. People seem to think that the new owners/renters will complain about the noise and demand that the port be shut down. I think it's fair to assume that the new tenants will be aware that the port is there and if they want to complain, after the fact, they'll be told, "Don't like it? Tough. Move."
They won't complain about the
They won't complain about the port being there.
Once they discover that the restaurants and bars have a garbage dumpster, though - look out!
sorry, double-posted
!
Really?
You Johnny Come Latelys don't know what you're talking about. The Yuppies in Charlestown complained because the Port noise was disrupting their luxury condo living. This resulted in restrictions on when ships could be unloaded.
Still too many
Knowing that the developers know there is a deed restriction that forbids housing on this parcel of land.
Which easement?
I looked up the easement on 776 Summer St (Book/Page 22478/315). It delineates a ~21,000 sqft Easement Area and a Reserved Area. Construction is limited in the easement area to preserve operations for Boston Edison Co. This is not a conservation easement. Edison's successors could abandon this easement. Is there another easement you're talking about?
Put your reading glasses on
Anon doesn’t say anything about an easement. Anon is talking about a deed restriction on residential use of the property. Look that up.
iamverysmart
I read the deed history going back 20+ years. Deed restrictions, you know, can establish easements. When it was conveyed by Boston Edison Co. in 1998 the conveyance was subject to an easement. I read the easement. Nothing stops Boston Edison or its successors from abandoning this easement. I was asking Anon if there was another easement.
With all due respect, which is to say none, you're an idiot.
Unnamed commenters are
Unnamed commenters are unnamed. Probably a neighboring developer who doesn't want squeezed.
Well, this is dumb
Instead of making a self sustainable neighborhood, they're going to put in office space and further stress L street, Day Blvd, and Seaport traffic.
What's next? Demanding a parking garage?
This project should be 60 housing / 15 commercial / 15 retail / 10 civic, with the promise of a grocery store.
You can build the commercial to section off the port boundaries if you're concerned about abutters.
Need a T station
Why don't they go all in and partner with the MBTA and add a dedicated bus line down summer street that runs into Southie or at least look at the possibility of A light rail connection to South Station. I work nearby in the design center and the time it takes to go from South station to the design center via public transit is so long that I drive, right by the old power station every day! This is a real missed opportunity similar to most proposed development in the city currently:(
You mean
like the #7 bus?
Of course, Summer Street could use a bus lane, which I think is being considered.
Getting to the Design Center from South Station is pretty easy by the Silver Line, but of course the buses are overcrowded and even in a tunnel they are prone to bunching.
Like many others, I would love the Silver Line to be converted to Light rail out to the Design Center, and connect to the Green Line at Boylston. A Kenmore/Seaport line would solve some capacity issues between Park and South Station right now, and provide an easier way to get between Back Bay hotels and the Convention Center, as well as other employment and entertainment destinations. I am confident it will be built -- by 2063.
Trolleys!
Back in the day, when the population was growing in Boston as it is now, electric trolleys went back and forth down summer street and many if the side streets in Southie.
By 2040, Bostons population very might exclipse its all time population high, with none of the transportation investments.
If the City / Massport were smart, they'd use this opportunity to greatly expand public transportation in the seaport and city point neighborhoods, rethink L street from the bathhouse to broadway to block cut throughs, and redesign patterns to promote usage of Day Blvd and East First St (both basically parkways) to this development / Summer st, instead of allowing through traffic to cut through from 93 through the heart of residential south boston.
There's a way for everybody to gain something here, unless you're stuck on 93 in quincy trying to bypass the tunnel.
I'm sure there is a deeper story here...
Developers want nothing more than to cram in the most profitable thing (100% housing) and be done with it.
However, I'll bet the ongoing contortions in design come from a community that want nothing to do with anything new. And so here we are.
Yeah a garage
Do you think all these yups are buying multimillion dollar condos aren’t going to own cars? Just like nobody is going to drive to the convention center or the Pavillion.
On the conservative side
The developers have said there would be over 2000 car trips per day. 1200 parking spaces, where do you think the other 800 cars are going to park. The neighborhood streets can't handle anymore vehicles.
The neighborhood was built
The neighborhood was built for people not cars.
This development needs a
This development needs a closely-spaced grd of public streets. Otherwise it will never be a real place.
Faneuil Hall doesn’t have
Faneuil Hall doesn’t have cars going down it. Not a real place. How dare something be designed for people. Cars have feelings too!!1
This is dumb.
This is dumb.
So - so far we are at
So - so far we are at negative 700 units. Great. So the next 700 units the mayor says he is helping create are just playing catch up to ones he lost.
Walsh and the city should be getting developers to ADD units to proposals and subtract office, which just encourages more congestion.
There’s no net loss
These units were not losses. The City never had them.