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Image courtesy Perkins & Will
Resuming their busy approval process after adjusting meeting and public comment protocols, Boston Planning & Development Agency directors gave the go-ahead to 354 housing units, including 254 at a trio of projects in the active Allston-Brighton submarket.
The largest project – 449 Cambridge St. in Allston – would replace an auto body shop and tow lot with a two-building, 164,000-square-foot residential complex totaling 166 total units. As part of its mitigation package, developer Anchor Line Partners agreed to stagger leases so that a majority of apartments will not turn over on Sept. 1. The $55 million project, tentatively branded as “The Vinyl,” will unbundle resident parking from leases and charge a separate market rate for its 80 parking spaces.
The project also requires multiple variances from the zoning board of appeals.
At 365 Western Ave. in Brighton, developer Joe Hassell received approval to replace the Shield System Car Wash with 65 apartments in a six-story building spanning nearly 50,000 square feet. The complex will include 10 income restricted units renting from $785 to $1,635 a month.
And at 421-425 Market St. in Brighton, developer Henry Chen plans to replace a single-story commercial building with a five-story, 29,141-square-foot apartment building containing 23 units.
In Hyde Park, a Philadelphia developer will preserve a former middle school as 75 LGBTQ-friendly senior housing apartments, including 60 income-restricted units. Pennrose LLC, which is active in school-to-housing conversions in Massachusetts, will renovate the former William Barton Rogers Middle School at 15 Everett St. after being selected by the Boston Department of Neighborhood Development in an RFP process in November 2019.
Plans by architects DiMella Shaffer include conversion of the school’s common areas into 10,000 square feet of community space.
Pennrose is partnering with nonprofit LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. of Boston on the project, which will be the first housing project marketed to the LGBTQ community in New England.
