Developer Samuels & Assoc. has submitted a compromise designed to satisfy the city of Boston’s affordable housing requirements at The Point, its proposed 349-unit apartment and condo tower in the Fenway.
Boston-based Samuels originally proposed 35 affordable units on-site, drawing criticism from housing advocates including the Fenway Community Development Corp.
After talks with the group and Boston Redevelopment Authority officials, Samuels said this week it would provide 41 affordable units on-site, including 35 apartments offered to residents at 70 percent of the area’s median income and six units for residents at 100 percent of the median. It also offered to pay $4.7 million to a city fund that supports affordable housing and spend $5 million on public improvements to the site.
Zoning in the Fenway neighborhood requires residential developers to support construction of affordable units equal to 20 percent of their total project, including 10 percent of the units on-site. Developers can satisfy the remainder through payments to the city’s inclusionary development fund.
The $4.7-million payment reflects six apartments at $200,000 per unit and 5.5 condos at $647,000 per unit, based upon a city formula.
The $5-million public improvements payment would fund a plaza, public walkway and public art installation. Approximately 17,000 square feet of the 25,000-square-foot parcel would be retained as open space under the current design. Samuels also has agreed to pay $100,000 to a fund that supports maintenance and capital improvements to nearby Ramler Park.
When it originally filed the plans in February 2013, Samuels proposed 319 apartments in a 22-story tower at the corner of Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue. Since then, construction costs have risen an estimated $25 million, prompting the new proposal for 240 apartments and 109 condos in a 30-story building, according to a letter to the BRA from consultants VHB this month.
The original proposal is no longer financially feasible, according to VHB’s Lauren DeVoe.
“Unfortunately, the planning and permitting process for the project has paralleled a period of unprecedented inflation of construction costs in Boston, the practical effect of which is a 20-percent increase in project costs,” DeVoe wrote.
The BRA board of directors is expected to vote on the project as soon as its next meeting Feb. 26.
