Some of Boston’s most active developers are considering new projects in the city’s South End, especially since it now appears the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) board will pass amendments to the zoning code allowing for greater height in the neighborhood.

Local landowners including Ronald Druker, Tufts University and GTI Properties have been quietly readying plans for new projects or the redevelopment of existing properties, especially if the Harrison-Albany Corridor Strategic Plan is approved by the BRA board Dec. 15.

The BRA has been working on the plan for the area bounded by the Massachusetts Turnpike, Albany Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and Washington Street and Harrison Avenue since late 2008. The areas in the study are littered with surface parking lots and underutilized, single-story buildings. The strategic plan, if approved, would increase height restrictions to 150 and 200 feet in places under planned development area (PDA) overlay districts, designed to allow for special zoning relief for large projects.

Such a relief would add coveted leniency in the height restrictions developers constantly battle within Boston to make their projects work. And if the South End PDA were fully built-out, it could usher in some 7 million square feet of new development in the area.

Take Druker’s property at the corner of Shawmut Avenue and East Berkeley Street. He owns a parcel that is now used as a surface parking lot that he would like to transform into a mixed-use project, likely to include ground-floor retail with residential units above, according to sources. Any new proposals for his lots are currently limited to 70 feet. But under the new zoning, that would jump to 150 feet.

Druker also owns a one-story Verizon switch station building next to the now-shuttered Holy Trinity church on Shawmut Avenue, land he is considering building on when Verizon’s lease runs out, sources said.

Wowing Washington Street

Not far from Druker’s parking lot on East Berkeley, Tufts Health owns a large surface parking lot immediately adjacent to Ming’s Super Market on Washington Street. Real estate sources say the healthcare provider has considered building a mixed-use project with office space and parking, or possibly other uses, on the site. James Foley, executive for Tufts Shared Services, a joint venture of the university and medical center, said that the group would like to see development on the site and would want to create a parking structure to replace the lost spots, but it is too soon to decide on uses.

And of course, the Boston Herald site will be up for redevelopment by Newton-based National Development once the newspaper moves to its new Seaport digs. But since residents decried their plans as offering too little in terms of density to the area, the firm is creating a new plan with greater density that it is preparing to present with Mayor Thomas Menino and the BRA, said Ted Tye, National Development managing partner. However, he would not elaborate on those changes.

"Clearly the area around Herald and E. Berkeley streets is an area in transition," Tye told Banker & Tradesman. "Those blocks just don’t really have an identity right now. It needs some major investment, a wow factor. It has to knit together what’s happening on the other side of the [Massachusetts Turnpike] with what’s happening further into the SOWA area. It can’t feel like this canyon in the middle. And someday, someday, there will be something built over the turnpike and we need to anticipate that happening, but that’s a long way off."

Berkeley To Harrison To Albany

One area project, a $125 million hotel from Normandy Partners, is already approved by the BRA board. The 332,285-square-foot project at 275 Albany St. was originally slated to have two hotel buildings with 408 total rooms and a 4,000-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor. However, Normandy is considering changing that use to partly residential. That would look something like a split of 165 to 175 apartments and approximately 200 hotel rooms.

"If that presents a more viable opportunity to get development started sooner, it looks like a good way to go … but we haven’t ruled out an entirely hospitality use," said Justin Krebs, Normandy principal. Krebs said construction will likely start at the end of 2012 or early in 2013.

Heading south on Harrison Avenue from East Berkeley Street, there is some 1.2 million square feet of commercial space owned by Mario Nicosia of GTI Properties in the SOWA district. He has expressed strong interest in redeveloping some of the buildings he owns, which house many of the creative area’s well-known artist galleries, restaurants and retail spaces.

The Fine Print

The new plan could afford plenty of new square footage for developers. But in exchange for height and floor area ratio relief, developers with projects eligible for designation in the PDA will have to give back to the city and its residents.
Developers getting zoning relief for commercial projects in the Harrison-Albany corridor could be required to provide a portion of the extra square footage they are granted to house cultural organizations or local business incubator space.

If a project were, say, completely commercial, then five percent of the bonus square footage the developer gains through zoning relief would need to be dedicated to an on-site local cultural organization or to incubate a local business determined appropriate by City Hall, according to Randi Lathrop, the BRA’s deputy director of community planning. Alternatively, the developer could make a cash payment to the BRA to be put toward local business development.

If the project is all housing, then the developer would need to dedicate 20 percent of the project to affordable housing, provide it elsewhere, or make a payment to the city’s housing fund. Elsewhere, that requirement is 15 percent.

Additionally, the BRA is implementing a "lot coverage" rule in the corridor. The project could cover 80 percent of the parcel on which it sits. The remaining 20 percent would need to be set aside for public use, like a new street, pedestrian walkway or alley.

If approved by the BRA board, the city’s zoning commission will vote on the strategic plan Jan. 18.