Plans for Roseland Property Co.’s East Pier, formerly known as Portside at Pier One, were outlined during an event sponsored last week by the Urban Land Institute. The project in East Boston will include a mix of commercial and residential uses.
The only reason Joseph Shea ever came to East Boston was for a flight out of Logan International Airport or to dine at Santarpio’s, the no-frills Italian restaurant where its thin-crust garlic pizza has a cult following.
But these days, the senior vice president of Roseland Property Co. is hoping that potential homebuyers will pay top dollar for luxury waterfront living at former marine industrial sites despite the neighborhood’s gritty streets and out-of-the-way location.
In a presentation to a packed crowd at an Urban Land Institute event titled “Boston’s Final Development Frontier,” Shea outlined plans for Roseland’s East Pier, formerly known as Portside at Pier One. The project, which is expected to begin construction soon, promises 375 condominiums and 177 apartments with nearly 70,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and commercial services scattered among seven new buildings on land owned by Massport.
“East Boston was left behind during the boom of the 1980s as developers turned their attention downtown and to the North End and Charlestown,” Shea said. “And by the time the recession came, I was spending lots of time as an attorney foreclosing on East Boston real estate.”
Not anymore. Since 2000, the median price of a condo in East Boston has increased by 177 recent to $249,250, up from $90,000, according to data from The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman.
Today, with few construction opportunities in the downtown Boston neighborhoods, developers are looking for the next place to gentrify. Builders like Shea who never considered “Eastie” before are taking a second look.
Shea said East Boston’s time has come because it combines sweeping city and ocean views, because the MBTA Blue Line makes for easy access to the downtown and because there is ferry service, ample parking, acres of park land and marine-related activities. Upon completion of several mixed-use projects in the planning stages, retail space, a recreational marina, and a full-service commercial shipyard will be added.
Philip DeNormandie, who bought Hodge Boiler Works for about $2 million a few years ago, has razed the Sumner Street facility where the boiler for the African Queen – the vessel in the Humphrey Bogart movie of the same name – was built.
DeNormandie is planning a new waterfront development that will feature a mix of 119 luxury condominiums, an eight-unit bed & breakfast inn, a cafe and a 100-slip marina. The 8 -story, 197,000-square-foot residential building will include a 6-story atrium and underground parking.
“Our goal is to be the tallest and most expensive project in East Boston and I think we will probably succeed at that on a square-foot basis,” said DeNormandie with a smile. “If everything goes well and our costs don’t rise too high, our clientele will be very happy to pay exorbitant prices.”
Neither Shea nor DeNormandie would say how expensive the units would be priced except to suggest that “modest units” without water views will start at $500,000.
When pressed by a question from the audience Shea said: “The market will determine the prices. But I don’t expect them to cost more than the Residences at The InterContinental [on Atlantic Avenue].”
That waterfront building in the downtown features a 5-star hotel on the first 12 floors and 130 luxury condominiums on the upper floors overlooking the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Boston Harbor. The condos are priced from $725,000 to nearly $7 million.
The Biggest Catalyst
While developers are scrambling to find sites in East Boston, perhaps the biggest catalyst for change was the recent $145 million redevelopment of the Maverick public housing development into Maverick Gardens by the Boston Housing Authority and Trinity Financial Inc. They were among the first to recognize East Boston’s potential.
Maverick, which was on the Boston Police Department’s list of the 10 most crime-ridden housing developments in the city, is a memory. Trinity razed the decaying barracks-style brick buildings and replaced them with 316 units in 20 3-story, wood-frame townhouses that offer impressive views of Boston’s harbor and skyline.
The new mixed-income community offers new streets that will link a revitalized commercial center, a renovated MBTA subway stop at Maverick Square and the adjacent neighborhood.
In 2004, Porter 156 Lofts was among the first factories to be converted in East Boston with prices from $200,000 to $400,000. The early 20th century General Electric light-bulb factory, which was later the Revelation Bra factory, offered 217 units with exposed pipes, bamboo floors and concrete ceilings. At the time, the units offered an alternative to potential buyers who had been priced out of the Back Bay or the South End.
Carlos Montanez, senior planner at the Boston Housing Authority, said officials and residents have worked together to amend East Boston’s zoning regulations to promote waterfront development and increase the amount of open space along East Boston’s Greenway linear park.
Mossik Hacobian, the session’s moderator who is also director of UrbanEdge and an East Boston resident, raised questions about affordable housing in the new developments.
DeNormandie said he would provide about 10 percent of the units as affordable as required by the city, with half on-site and half at an undetermined location. Shea said because the project is on Massport land he is not required to include any affordable housing but has promised some amenities to the community.
