Image courtesy of Embarc Studio
Boston University has no current plans for the site of an approved apartment tower project it just bought in Allston.
The school paid $19.75 million for an industrial parcel at 76 Ashford St. in Allston Wednesday, according to a Suffolk County deed.
“For now and in the immediate future, we will continue to operate the building under its current use and zoning,” school spokesperson Colin Riley said in email.
The seller, an affiliate of developer City Realty, secured approval for a 254-unit, 17-story apartment tower on the site from the Boston Planning & Development Agency a year ago. The tower would have sat next to a planned bus-only connection between the MBTA’s future West Station commuter rail and bus hub and the BU campus and Commonwealth Avenue to the south.
In an email to supporters of the Allston Civic Association Thursday, association president Anthony D’Isidoro urged BU to build the City Realty project as a dorm.
“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,” D’Isidoro said. “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.”
Any such plan would require additional review by BPDA officials, however.
“Any future proposed institutional project will be part of the University’s next 10-year Institutional Master Plan (IMP) process with the City of Boston, not the two-year IMP process we are in currently,” Riley said.
That master plan process runs through 2026.
Banker & Tradesman staff writer Steve Adams contributed reporting.
