1270 Commonwealth Avenue (Old CVS Site) | Allston

[Brandeisian]

First time post from a long time lurker deciding to get in on the action!

LOI filed for a six-story building (206 units and ground-floor retail) at the intersection of Commonwealth and Gorham.

The CVS recently departed and even when it was there the parking lot was significantly underutilized. This one is personal to me as I used to live up the road.

Google Street View

 

[king_vibe]

YES

 

[#bancars]

First time post from a long time lurker deciding to get in on the action!

LOI filed for a six-story building (206 units and ground-floor retail) at the intersection of Commonwealth and Gorham.

The CVS recently departed and even when it was there the parking lot was significantly underutilized. This one is personal to me as I used to live up the road.

Google Street View

View attachment 22744

I used to live at 1284. Proximity to the CVS was convenient as hell but man that giant surface parking lot always bugged me! Glad to see this finally being redeveloped.

 

[Dodocogon]

From the LOI, it sounds like this will take the BSC portion of the lot as well - hopefully! Likely not a stretch the give them a few spots in the building's parking lot if that's part of it.

Lived down on Brainerd as well - definitely prime for development right here.

 

[dshoost88]

Welcome to the forum @Brandeisian !

 

[HenryAlan]

Thanks for registering and posting, @Brandeisian! I used to live on Allston St. and hated the street wall gap. My daughter now lives basically across the street, so still spend time in this area. I've been waiting a few decades for this project!

 

[FK4]

I worked at BLM (1354) for a couple years and am friends with the owning family that sold it a couple years back. Girlfriend now wife rented a parking spot there in that CVS lot and lived around the corner. That property is HUGE. And gonna be developed one of these days, but I guess the current owner feels operating it as storage is more lucrative. I like the density that’s been put in on Brainerd and elsewhere around here.

 

[Rover]

Lived at 50 Brainerd myself a long time ago and even back in the Stone Ages I thought that parking lot behind CVS was a waste of space. Nice to see it put to good use.

 

[Equilibria]

PNF: https://bpda.app.box.com/s/q7udi5v93jf0gso7os69ywt7me1i0a1e

 

[theSil]

A+ proposal.

Attractive, good parking ratio, and a boatload of units. If I had one request it'd be to add an additional retail space on the corner of Comm Ave and Gorham St, but it's a great proposal as is. Build it yesterday.

 

[RandomWalk]

You know it’s aiming for high end when they spring for cornices.

 

[SuffolkHeights11]

Great proposal that should be allowed as of right. Instead, multi-family housing in this area requires a conditional use permit, the allowed FAR is 1.0, and the max height is 35 feet. Laughable.

 

[BeyondRevenue]

I lived near there in the early 90s and wanted this to happen then... as much as I loved Videosmith and the staff selection wall. This project spaaaahkles. It should be a SimCity default model.

 

[king_vibe]

Looks great.

 

[curcuas]

Infill, glorious infill

 

[chrisbrat]

I lived near there in the early 90s and wanted this to happen then... as much as I loved Videosmith and the staff selection wall. This project spaaaahkles. It should be a SimCity default model.

Lived directly across the street in the early/mid 2000s. Was around early enough to rent a few titles from Videosmith, but it shuttered for good soon after I moved in. Gave that gigantor CVS plenty of business tho! Anyway - YES! Looks like an amazing addition to the neighborhood (and much better than some of the dreck that's gone up further down Comm Ave (towards BC). Hopefully the issues brought up by SuffolkHeights11 don't kill this one (I confess I know nothing about the zoning requirements etc. he brought up).

 

[pel_north]

Dang! I worked at an RE company for years right next to this site and I always thought it could've been put to better use. Glad to see the change, but sad for the college kids that will have to settle for the 7-eleven or McD's down the road.

 

[Czervik.Construction]

I think everyone here lived within a half mile of this lot at some point. This was my go-to CVS as well, mainly because they had that massive parking lot. You could also cut through there if there was traffic, too.

 

[itchy]

LOL. This location does have a 'six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon' feeling to it.

I never lived here under my own rent contract, but I did shack up for ~half a year with a girlfriend who lived next door.

 

[#bancars]

I think everyone here lived within a half mile of this lot at some point. This was my go-to CVS as well, mainly because they had that massive parking lot. You could also cut through there if there was traffic, too.

Can confirmed live pretty much right next to that CVS at one point.