More cranes will likely be flying over the city’s skyline after the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) on Tuesday approved multifamily developments from the Seaport to the Fenway and beyond.
The city’s development arm approved nearly 1,200 multifamily spaces, stretching from East Boston to the Innovation District and Jamaica Plain, with projects ranging in size from 414 units down to 21.
The largest projects are decidedly in the city’s downtown neighborhoods, where Mayor Thomas Menino and the BRA have focused much of their attention. In the Innovation District, an affiliate of Madison Properties won approval for 414 apartments, including 60 innovation units, in a 22-story building.
The property will contain about 12,000 square feet of retail space and 132 below ground parking spaces. The project’s exterior was originally envisioned as mostly gold colored, but the design team altered it so half the building will have a gold hue and half will be brown to reflect the areas’ existing buildings, said Tamara Roy, senior associate principal for architects ADD Inc.
In the Fenway, a project known as The Point will contain 320 apartments atop two floors of retail space. Samuels & Assoc. plans to start work on the 22-story apartment tower about a year from now. The project will be constructed at the corner of Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue, where a D’Angelo sandwich shop now stands.
Across the harbor in East Boston, developer Trinity Financial plans to construct 196 residences at 122-148 Border St. The plan for the area calls for a future marine facility, as well as "remnant marine railways" the project team plans to retain as a historical nod to the site’s past as a former sailing ship maintenance facility. The building’s exterior will be primarily brick.
Moving south of the downtown, developer Corcoran Jennison gained approval for its University Place Residences in Dorchester, where 184 apartments atop 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail space would be built at 140-150 Mt. Vernon St. The 4.1-acre parcel on Columbia Point is currently a parking lot.
In Jamaica Plain, 39 rental units, all classified affordable, were approved for construction at the northern end of Amory Street as part of the ongoing revitalization of Jackson Square. Not far away, Norbert School Assoc. plans to redevelop the former Norbert School at 20 Sunnyside St. into 21 rental residences, with two affordable units. The former school property has been vacant for six years.
