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As city officials encourage high-density development along South Boston’s Dorchester Avenue corridor, a developer has submitted plans to build a 159-room independent hotel at the site of a car rental agency.
Boston-based Evergreen Property Group scrapped a 33-unit apartment complex project approved in 2015 for the same parcel because of community input and changing market dynamics, according to a project notification letter submitted by attorney Joseph Hanley of McDermott, Quilty & Miller LLP.
The 8-story hotel would be built on a half-acre lot currently occupied by Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 246-248 Dorchester Ave. The 86,000-square-foot building was designed with a significant setback on the upper two floors to conform with the surrounding neighborhood, according to the notification letter.
The parcel is part of a 144-acre area between Broadway and Andrew stations on the MBTA’s Red Line that the Boston Planning and Development Authority has singled out to encourage higher-density multifamily and commercial development.
A BPDA study released in 2016 estimated up to 16 million square feet of development, including 8,000 housing units, could be built in the area which primarily houses industrial businesses.
The BPDA board of directors approved a draft plan for the neighborhood in December but is still studying specific zoning. Developers would receive height and density bonuses in exchange for such community benefits such as including workforce housing units, civic/cultural space or affordable commercial space.
