After acquiring a 2-acre industrial parcel at auction in 2010, developer David Pogorelc’s vision for a multifamily development near Andrew Square in South Boston grew in scope.

It still looks like moving day at David Pogorelc’s new 10th-floor offices overlooking Copley Square.

Artwork is stacked against the walls, three days after Pogorelc’s development company, Core Investments, relocated from Downtown Crossing. But attention to office feng shui can wait, as Core Investments works toward groundbreaking on Washington Village, a multifamily development that’s a stark departure in size and scale in the land of three-deckers.

Pogorelc is set to build a new $400 million residential neighborhood in a corner of Southie that’s familiar mainly to contractors stocking up on building

supplies and commuters seeking a shortcut around Expressway gridlock. Across five drab industrial acres will rise 656 condominiums and apartments and nearly 100,000 square feet of stores and restaurants in nine buildings ranging up to 21 stories. A Post Office Square-like central courtyard will create a green oasis on parcels formerly occupied by a commercial laundry, transmission shop and paint store.

Pogorelc insists that his initial game plan wasn’t this expansive. He was just doing the same thing he’s been doing for 25 years: looking for undervalued properties, sprucing them up and selling them for a profit. He made his first real estate deal shortly after graduating from Bryant College, buying a two-family vacant lot in Providence for $7,000 and selling it a year later for $10,000.

“That deal is no different than the deals we do today,” he said. “The profit margin is the same, so I framed it.”

A Nose For Distressed Assets

Born in Minneapolis, Pogorelc and his family moved back and forth between Natick and Minnesota during his teens. After college, he worked as one of 30 brokers for Data Realty in Allston selling residential real estate. During the real estate meltdown of the early 1990s, he started scooping up distressed properties as investments.

During a tight lending period, at an auction in November 1991, he met one of his key business contacts. Henry Cormier, a French Canadian immigrant who built a successful contracting business and branched out into private lending, offered to finance one of Pogorelc’s acquisitions. The pair built a relationship based upon handshakes, not lengthy contracts. They’ve partnered on more than 80 transactions in the last 25 years ranging from single-family homes and condos to apartment houses and half-finished subdivisions.

“If I need to borrow a couple of million dollars, I pick up the phone and I call him,” Pogorelc said. “It’s a relationship. If he tells me yes, I’ll put up a non-refundable deposit based upon his word. And that’s it. He won’t even look at the property. We’ve gotten to that point.”

Washington Village Plans Expand

After acquiring a 2-acre South Boston industrial property at foreclosure auction in 2010, Pogorelc met with the Andrew Square Civic Association to get their feedback on a multifamily development. The conversation turned quickly to the absence of shopping and meeting places in the neighborhood, among the city’s dwindling ranks of industrial areas. The wish list included a supermarket, service retail and a neighborhood green.

To support that vision, Pogorelc realized he’d need a bigger site. But the neighboring properties weren’t on the market and were occupied by working businesses, none of which had indicated any desire to move. Pogorelc approached the owners of a transmission shop and Crown Linen and offered to help with relocation. He offered the third, a paint shop, 10,000 square feet of retail space in the new development. Two years and five additional parcels later, Pogorelc was ready to begin permitting for Washington Village. He’s seeking construction financing with the goal of beginning demolition by year’s end.

Nine buildings designed by Prellwitz Chilinski Assoc. will range from 3 to 21 stories. Reflecting a potential glut of luxury apartments in Boston, more than 400 of the 656 units will be sold as condos. Core Investments agreed to include 17 percent income-restricted units – with 4 percent set aside as workforce housing for households earning 120 to 170 percent of area median income.

Next Stop: Dot Ave.?

The growing demand for transit-friendly properties factored into Pogorelc’s 2014 acquisition of another prime parcel near the Andrew Square MBTA station: 501-511 Dorchester Ave. The 6.2-acre vacant lot between Dorchester Avenue and the MBTA tracks is part of a 144-acre study area where the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is studying upzoning for high-density residential development. The South Boston Dorchester Avenue study estimated that up to 16 million square feet of new development could be built between the Broadway and Andrew stations, including 8,000 housing units.

A BRA conceptual study calls for building a new street from the rear of Andrew Station through the heart of 501-511 Dorchester Ave., with a central green flanked by high-rise buildings along the Red Line tracks and mid-rises on the Dorchester Avenue side. Maximum building heights could be increased to 300 feet if developers include community benefits.

The BRA’s directors are expected to vote on the rezoning this fall. Pogorelc said he has no immediate plans for the site, which he owns in a partnership with Jan Steenbrugge of Ad Meloria Asset Management. But for now, South Boston is the only neighborhood on his radar.

“That’s all I’m concentrating on,” he said. “The Red Line is probably the best line, and it’s going to continue its renaissance.”