Boston University buys Allston lot approved for 17-story residential building; Suffolk to become Beantown Pub's landlord downtown

Boston University yesterday paid $19.8 million to buy what is now a one-story warehouse and parking lot at 76 Ashford St. in Allston from City Realty, which won approval in September to put up a 17-story 254-unit apartment building there.

Separately, Suffolk University yesterday paid $30 million for 101 Tremont St., best known as the home of the Beantown Pub.

The Ashford property BU bought sits between the Gardner-Ashford-Pratt area, in which large numbers of BU students rent apartments, and the area where, someday, the state might build a new commuter-rail and bus station that would serve both BU's side of the train tracks and the new mixed-use development Harvard is planning for the former train yard along the Framingham Line. To gain city approval, City Realty agreed to set aside part of the parcel for access to the new station, should it actually get built.

City Realty, which is currently trying to redevelop an area centered on the intersection of Harvard Avenue and Cambridge Street, paid $6.7 million for the roughly 3/4-acre parcel in 2018.

BU did not immediately say what it plans to do with the property, but Anthony D'Isidoro, president of the Allston Civic Association, said he is thrilled by the sale and hopes BU will work to build the tower, but as student housing, rather than apartments, to help ease the pressure on nearby rental prices - and ultimately to ensure access from the GAP area to the possible transit station. In a social-media post this afternoon, he wrote:

Given my lack of confidence that City Realty would ever get around to constructing 76 Ashford St a city approved project, whose cooperation agreement contains key enabling provisions for the new West Station as part of the Allston I90 Multimodal Project, I have also been advocating to both parties, the potential benefits of City Realty selling the site and project to Boston University.

Not only would it help address the student housing issue by freeing up additional units for community residents and hopefully relieving pressure on the local rental market, but guarantee a key circulation piece for West Station and the Malvern St Transitway.

I am pleased to inform you that our hopes and dreams have been realized.

Downtown, meanwhile, Suffolk plans to convert the 11-story 101 Tremont - which has offices above its drinking zone - into dorm rooms, Banker & Tradesman reports.

Suffolk bought the building from an LLC owned by GLL Real Estate Partners, based in Orlando, FL, which paid $50.2 million for the building in 2016, from a seller who had paid $9.7 million for it just three years before that.