Image courtesy of Boston Planning Department
The owner who acquired a distressed Hyde Park development site last year is pivoting away from multifamily housing in a new proposal submitted to Boston officials.
Developer Joseph Federico Jr. is seeking to build a pair of 5-story self-storage facilities totaling 325,000 square feet on the 2.7 acre site at 1717-1725 Hyde Park Ave.
According to Federico’s permitting attorney, George Morancy of South Boston-based Adams & Morancy, the new proposal will “establish a high architectural standard” for commercial-industrial projects in the neighborhood.
The project requires large project approval by the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
In a notification letter to the Boston Planning Department, Morancy addressed the decision to forgo housing production in favor of an industrial use.
“Those [residential] approvals were secured by an unrelated developer under different economic conditions and ultimately were never exercised,” Morancy wrote, adding that the self-storage project is consistent with the property’s location in an existing local industrial zoning district and is “capable of timely implementation.”
The previous developer, Boston-based Ad Meloria, touted the site’s location next to the MBTA’s Readville commuter rail station as ideal for transit-oriented housing.
Federico acquired the property in March 2025 for $6.8 million from lender Northern Bank & Trust Co. of Woburn.
Ad Meloria received approval in late 2020 for an estimated $70 million residential project including 151 condominiums and 122 apartments, and later switched the plans to all apartments in an attempt to complete its financing. The project filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2023, and lender Northern Bank & Trust took ownership for $6.5 million.
“The proposed project represents the productive redevelopment of a property that has remained vacant despite prior development approvals,” Morancy wrote.
The self-storage use would generate less traffic, according to the notification letter. Developers are expected to submit a traffic study as part of their forthcoming project notification form to the Planning Department.
