3200 Washington St. | Egleston Sq. | Jamaica Plain

datadyne007

datadyne007

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100% private funded. 76 units, nearly 24% of which are affordable. A hardware store & neighborhood restaurant are planned for the retail spaces at ground level.

PNF Here: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/getattachment/67504ddf-44ae-489d-866d-dac91dd529dc

BRA Website Listing: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/projects/development-projects/3200-washington-st

08/13/15 - APPROVED


BRA applauded developer for providing so many extra affordable units than required. Developer has also committed $1.2 million to improve 52 Montebello Rd, a "problem property."

Intense community protest occurred outside the BRA boardroom while this approval happened.

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Note: This project was briefly posted and discussed in the Roxbury thread a while back.
 
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It's right next to the roundhouse tower and that enormously tall old factory. It's such a joke that even here they listened to "The Community". What a bunch of losers they are. I'm glad it got approved, but man, so much for Walsh's corridor. Next to the Orange Line, shitty area, build it up.
 
FK4 said:
It's right next to the roundhouse tower and that enormously tall old factory. It's such a joke that even here they listened to "The Community". What a bunch of losers they are. I'm glad it got approved, but man, so much for Walsh's corridor. Next to the Orange Line, shitty area, build it up.
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A BRA board member suggested it should be taller. The brewery across from it is ~90' tall.
 
Way to stick it to those jerks at the JPNC! Thank you BRA for not pandering to the loonies!
 
What exactly are the nature of the complaints? Too dense? Not enough affordable housing? Vague anger over 'gentrification'?

Looks a solid project, I'll take 76 units any day. Could be higher sure, but Egleston needs the gaps filled more than it needs height (assuming we can't do both).
 
FK4 said:
It's right next to the roundhouse tower and that enormously tall old factory. It's such a joke that even here they listened to "The Community". What a bunch of losers they are. I'm glad it got approved, but man, so much for Walsh's corridor. Next to the Orange Line, shitty area, build it up.
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OT - but does anyone have any info on that old factory? I've always been intrigued by it.
 
CantabAmager said:
What exactly are the nature of the complaints? Too dense? Not enough affordable housing? Vague anger over 'gentrification'?

Looks a solid project, I'll take 76 units any day. Could be higher sure, but Egleston needs the gaps filled more than it needs height (assuming we can't do both).
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Not enough affordable housing which a Board Member replied to the development team: "People should be clapping for you, not condemning this project. This is 100% private funded, unlike [The Merano] which we just approved with mostly public money, and you are providing 8 extra affordable units over the requirement. Plus you are committing a lot of money to improve an adjacent blighted property which you are not required to do at all. This is a slam dunk. Well done."

Oh also, the developer announced that the previous "health club amenity space" was turned over to commercial retail now. They envision a neighborhood restaurant in one space and a hardware store in the other.
 
datadyne007 said:
Not enough affordable housing which a Board Member replied to the development team: "People should be clapping for you, not condemning this project. This is 100% private funded, unlike [The Merano] which we just approved with mostly public money, and you are providing 8 extra affordable units over the requirement. Plus you are committing a lot of money to improve an adjacent blighted property which you are not required to do at all. This is a slam dunk. Well done."

Oh also, the developer announced that the previous "health club amenity space" was turned over to commercial retail now. They envision a neighborhood restaurant in one space and a hardware store in the other.
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Ok, so were just talkin' opposition for the sake of opposition. That or general fear over a changing neighborhood.

Who are in opposition anyways, old or new JPers, long-standing Egleston residents, community activists? I'm asking, because I'm struggling to find just what it is that irks people over this project. I just don't see anything major wrong with this project. For once, I even like the boxy-ness, the colors look respectable, not too much like an office, but sleek nonetheless.

AND that sideways, dumbo-eared threedecker on Montebello gets some sorely needed attention - the board member was right, this is fucking slam dunk.

Anyone else seeing an incipient process change? Seems like a lot of developers have wised up to the community orgs' modi operandi and, instead of squaring off, are undercutting the normal sources of complaints by including extra affordable allotments. I hope that process continues - at least until the city finishes these Egleston/Dot Ave studies and starts to revamp the planning dept and zoning regulations. Then again, I'm going through an optimistic phase this week.
 
CantabAmager said:
Anyone else seeing an incipient process change? Seems like a lot of developers have wised up to the community orgs' modi operandi and, instead of squaring off, are undercutting the normal sources of complaints by including extra affordable allotments.
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"Ha ha! I'll give them everything they were going to ask for and then some! And if that doesn't shut them up I'll hire a competent architect, use high quality materials and build it with local labor. That'll show 'em! Suckers."
 
CantabAmager said:
Ok, so were just talkin' opposition for the sake of opposition. That or general fear over a changing neighborhood.

Who are in opposition anyways, old or new JPers, long-standing Egleston residents, community activists? I'm asking, because I'm struggling to find just what it is that irks people over this project. I just don't see anything major wrong with this project. For once, I even like the boxy-ness, the colors look respectable, not too much like an office, but sleek nonetheless.

AND that sideways, dumbo-eared threedecker on Montebello gets some sorely needed attention - the board member was right, this is fucking slam dunk.

Anyone else seeing an incipient process change? Seems like a lot of developers have wised up to the community orgs' modi operandi and, instead of squaring off, are undercutting the normal sources of complaints by including extra affordable allotments. I hope that process continues - at least until the city finishes these Egleston/Dot Ave studies and starts to revamp the planning dept and zoning regulations. Then again, I'm going through an optimistic phase this week.
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I watched the whole meeting (it was a marathon) on the Boston TV livestream so I could only hear the protesters. They were using very similar (and some of the same) chants that #BLM protesters use, so I'd assume it was the same social activism crowd. They're right to make noise about affordable housing based on their own convictions, but this project is the wrong one to continue to battle with because they actually succeeded! The developer was super committed to helping out the community.
 
I'm a 4 minute walk from this project and I'm very glad it got approved. Its a huge upgrade over what is currently there and no one is losing their home or business so I think the protesters should have focused elsewhere. There was a "tent city" protest last weekend and it seemed to be mostly teens and I think "fear of general change" may be a good way to describe what is going on.
I do feel for the families who are having their rents raised but I think this building, with its 18 affordable units, will help more people than it will hurt.
 
the idea of a developer rehabbing a "problem property" is an absolutely phenomenal idea and should really be a key tenet for any development in a "transitional" area


it's amazing how one or two properties can drag down a whole area. one place I lived in had one of these double triple deckers a few blocks down. place was a dump, always sketchy activity outside with the doors wide open.. and sure enough, anytime there was a crime in the neighborhood, the first place raided by police would be this awful, known, dilapidated building.


if this place had been rehabbed crime would be significantly lower, the streets would be a whole lot safer, and a couple people might not have been shot. the whole area was fine but for this one place the slum lord didn't care about. get rid of enough of these places... and you might start to actually put a real dent in the crime rate.
 
The protesters are not "the community": they're a bunch of kooks. We shouldn't give one group the respectability of calling them "the community". That makes it sounds like there's a general consensus about the development. There isn't.
 
WBUR wrote up a rundown of the Egleston changes.

From the owner of the auto shop currently occupying the space:
When developers first came to E&J Auto Tech, saying they wanted to tear down the building that houses the auto repair shop and put up a six-story apartment building, owner Enrique Nuñez got nervous.

But he was quickly assured his shop would be relocated.

“I’m going to benefit because they’re going to find us another location,” Nuñez said in Spanish, standing in his garage on Washington Street in Boston’s Jamaica Plain. “Because of this I support the project.”

Nuñez said his shop will move a few blocks over to a similarly sized lot on Columbus Avenue, and that means greater visibility.

“It’s a good thing for the neighborhood,” he said of the development. “With a project like this the neighborhood will look completely different. This is progress for practically all of Jamaica Plain.”
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On the adjacent abandoned 3-decker:
The developer also plans to rehab an adjacent triple-decker for an additional six affordable apartments.
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On local opposition unless 100% affordable (emphasis mine):
“If it’s going to be built it should be affordable,” said 17-year-old Egleston Square resident Marvin Mendoza, “because I don’t want to see my community change at all.”

He lives with his family in a nearby apartment. He said their landlord is raising the rent and it will force the family out of the neighborhood.

Mendoza sees 3200 Washington St. as part of the problem.

“You’re not going to see people like me … in Boston anymore,” he said. “We’re all going to be all spread out.” He added: “To me this community is more than just a home — it’s everything. I love this place.”
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On affordability:
Another sticking point is the very definition of affordability. Most of the affordable units at 3200 Washington St. will be for those earning 70 percent of area median income — about $69,000 for a family of four.

Opponents of the project say area median income is out of touch with the reality of the neighborhood. They used census data to estimate incomes for families renting in Egleston, concluding that new apartments should be reserved for families making $26,000 a year.
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The leading WBUR concluding question:
The question sure to persist is this: Who will be able to afford to live in the future Boston?
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