There is a long story about the neighbors preventing those lots from being built on and opposing any and all feasible development proposals. But snark is more fun.
100% boomer pastoralist NIMBYism turning the area next to green st station into ahistorically low density homes + vacant lots. And the historical density was far too low for heavy rail subway proximate areas.
This is fantastic. A really great location for more cafes and open air dining. Will just attract passersby too. It feels like when it first opened, 1 lincoln had some prominent restaurants and has not really kept that up since the pandemic.
The whole thing is a massive own goal by the city, which is kneecapping a developer who wants to add to downtown. Just like the half assed plan downtown zoning, the inaction here is only contributing to the mess. This is one part of the City where high density should be very much by right.
The city owned parcels where they have X units of heavily subsidized housing cross-subsidized by life science labs which are also paying for a parking garage and many other amenities...
It's going to be darkly funny when the market rate infill all gets built way before the high concept, baroque subsidized buildings along the square proper (on city owned land) get developed. Will be very similar to the SWC in that way.