83 Leo Birmingham Parkway/Image courtesy of Stantec
Tax deferments designed to catalyze groundbreakings of 1,400 apartments in Charlestown and Allston-Brighton received support Thursday from the Boston Planning & Development Agency Board.
Boston City Council President Liz Breadon, whose District 9 includes three of the four projects, spoke in favor of the Chapter 121B tax agreements at the monthly board meeting. The final step is negotiation of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements by the Assessing Department.
Property taxes would be frozen at their current levels, potentially enabling developers to obtain private financing, before escalating over a five- or 10-year period upon issuance of the certificate of occupancy. The total abatements are estimated at $31.5 million, but are designed to be revenue-neutral by delaying, rather than forgiving, the payments.
Reuben Kantor, senior policy advisor in the Boston Planning Department, said rising interest rates and construction costs are to blame for the backlog of approximately 30,000 unbuilt units. The total includes massive projects such as Suffolk Downs and Dorchester Bay City, which were not included in the first round of tax agreements.
Up to 12 More Projects Eligible
The Planning Department focused on projects with at least 100 units at which developers indicated they could obtain financing within 15 months after approval of the tax agreements.
Another 10 to 12 projects also fit the general criteria for similar tax treatment in the future, Kantor said.
“We talked to at least 40 developers and some of them said they need two, three or four times this amount to make this work,” Kantor said. “That was not on the table for us.”
The first round includes Fulcrum Global Investors’ 1 Mystic Ave. project in Charlestown, which is approved for 408 units in a 16-story tower, Hines’ 318-unit 22-24 Pratt St. in Allston, Nordblom Company’s 333-unit 83 Leo Birmingham Parkway in Brighton and the 341-unit building D at Allston Yards on Everett Street.
Some housing activists say the Wu administration has failed to consider other strategies to increase housing production, such as citywide rezoning or a reduction in the 20-percent affordability requirement for new developments with at least seven units.
At Thursday’s meeting, directors approved an updated rezoning plan for Hyde Park’s Cleary Square under the Squares + Streets program.
The updates include a reduction in maximum building heights from 7 to 4 stories for a cluster of parcels near the intersection of Hyde Park Avenue and River Street.
The plan also recommends the potential sale of a BPDA-owned parking lot on Pingree Street for an affordable housing development. But the study rejected the potential sale of a municipal parking lot off Winthrop Street for at least five years, after residents told BPDA officials they wanted to retain the free parking.
Five Development Projects Also Approved
At its October meeting, the board approved five development projects totaling 452,735 square feet, including an estimated $35 million apartment complex at 201-207 Brighton Ave.
Burlington-based DND Homes plans to build a 77,690 square-foot apartment building totaling 145 units on two parcels totaling 1.6 acres. The project also requires approval of variances from the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal for off-street parking, height, floor area ratio and minimum open space. The project team includes architect DMS Design, Verdant Landscape Architecture and sustainability consultant The Green Engineer.
Two projects were approved near Fields Corner in Dorchester. A vacant office building at 50B Park St. will be replaced with a two-building self-storage facility totaling 144,000 square feet. And at 1428 Dorchester Ave., a development firm led by Timothy Longden and Edward Ahern received approval for a 5-story, 23-unit residential building built with mass timber framing.
In East Boston, Cargo Ventures plans to build a 143,142 square-foot distribution center for Logan International Airport vendors at 160 McClellan Highway, replacing a single-story warehouse. The proposal faced opposition from neighborhood activists saying it would allow Logan Airport to increase its footprint and cause additional truck traffic through neighborhoods.
And in Roxbury, a 24-unit home ownership condominium project proposed by Greensmith Development was approved for a long-vacant lot at 201 Hampden St.
