Northeastern University received the green light to demolish the Huntington Avenue YMCA gymnasium and create a 720-bed dormitory at the site during a Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) board meeting last night.
The BRA board approved plans for Phoenix Lincoln Properties to purchase a portion of the Y for $21.5 million and build an 11-story undergraduate dorm fronting on St. Botolph Street for a long-term lease to Northeastern.
The university has a formal agreement to lease the building for 15 years and is being strongly encouraged to eventually purchase the property. However, if Northeastern does not purchase it at the end of the lease, they have agreed to house students there for at least an additional 15 years, said City Councilor Michael Ross, who gave his full support for the project.
"It’s still inadequate and more dorms are needed on campus," Ross said. "But in the end it’s absolutely worth supporting."
Construction is expected to take place this summer and end in the summer 2013 for occupancy in September 2013. Among the many concerns expressed by the community members that attended the meeting to oppose the project, some said they had not seen a financing plan from Lincoln and did not want to see demolition occur without a completed dorm, like what happened to Filene’s in Downtown Crossing. However, a representative from Lincoln said they have financing set with JPMorgan Chase.
Yet the earliest shovels could be in the ground is June 7. The Boston Landmarks Commission placed a 90-day demolition delay on the project on March 8, after the more than 1,000 YMCA members signed a petition to preserve the building, maintaining the organization provides vital community services that would be impeded by the renovation.
It is still unclear whether community members will seek Landmark designation for the YMCA cluster before the demo delay expires. If so, then it will be Lincoln’s plans to raze the buildings that are demolished.
Although the YMCA was added to the National Register of Historic Places, that alone does not afford it protection from demolition, unless the funding for the project comes from state or federal money. However, designation as a Boston Landmark would offer this protection.
Lincoln’s plans for the YMCA site are years, and many scratched blueprints, in the making. The original plan called for security operated by the developer to oversee the building, students and others that would have lived there. However, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino sent the developer packing in 2008 in light of neighborhood opposition to the structure’s height and privatization, saying that without university involvement, an excess of students would be even less supervised in a neighborhood dense with colleges.
In addition to the Northeastern project, the BRA approved two other development projects in Boston during its meeting last night.
An $11 million housing project got the thumbs up for Boston’s Innovation District. The 219,950-square-foot project – at 49/51/63 Melcher St. in Fort Point Channel – consists of 74 housing units. There will be 38 rental units, 27 innovation units and nine affordable housing units – five of which will be set aside for artist live/work space.
Innovation housing units are intended for individuals whose income is too high to qualify for formally restricted affordable housing units but who are often priced out of the housing market, according to a statement. The units are a smaller unit type that have a flexible layout and have access to a shared common area.
The Melcher Street project is a joint development between Archon Group L.P. and Goldman Properties. Phase one of construction is set to begin in the fall.
A solar-powered homes project also received BRA approval. Architecture and engineering students from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and UMass-Lowell are leading "Team Massachusetts" in the 2011 U.S. Solar Decathlon in which they will design and build a 100 percent solar-powered home.
The students will construct a solar house this summer on the 15,000-square-foot Parcel Q-1 in the Marine Industrial Park, according to a statement. The home will be judged on energy efficiency, affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence.
