Developer wins approval to turn office building near North Station into apartments; another applies to convert a Downtown Crossing office building into residential units

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved developer Greg McCarthy's plans to convert a vacant six-story office building at 129 Portland St. into 25 apartments.

Also yesterday, developer Kambiz Shahbazi's KS Partners submitted a proposal to convert an 11-story office building at 15 Court Sq., off Court Street downtown and next to the Pi Alley garage, into 80 apartments.

Both projects would be under the city's office-to-residential pilot program, which seeks to bring more life to downtown through tax breaks for building owners who convert office space into apartments.

The zoning board McCarthy's plans unanimously.

Shahbazi is proposing 42 studios, 20 one-bedroom apartments and 18 two-bedroom units in the 1899 building, which his company bought in 2019 for $29 million. About 14 of the units would be rented as affordable.

In both cases, the buildings would have no off-street parking for tenant and would preserve the ground floor for commercial space.

Under the city's pilot, developers get 75% off standard residential tax rates for up to 29 years. One condition is that at least 17% of units be rented as affordable; another is that the city gets a 2% cut of the sales of a building during the abatement period. At the time the Wu administration proposed the program, developers of new buildings were only required to commit to 13% affordable units - last month, the specification was increased to 17% across the board.

15 Court Sq. filings and meeting/comment schedule.