ACC/NU Residence Hall | 840 Columbus Ave | Northeastern University

areiss said:
Not to derail the conversation from housing stock too much, but I was actually one of these students who graduated HS in 2020. I'm under the impression that fairly few students chose to delay enrolling for a year, and in fact, most chose to live on campus. It certainly felt like I was in the minority when I chose to take classes remotely the first semester.

My guess as to why this is the case is that while Northeastern likes to tout its financial aid, I think a substantial percentage of the demographic remains the type of people who are more unfazed by a steep charge for virtual classes. As for the current situation on campus, housing stock definitely remains at or above capacity. I personally know many people who were stuck in the Midtown Hotel as mentioned above or even the Westin Copley. Some people attribute this to COVID density restrictions, but as far as I know, nobody is being placed in a single when they otherwise would have been placed in a double unless they have actually contracted COVID.
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It is important to note that in a "regular" year, the people housed in the Westin Copley would not have even been housed on the Boston campus for their first semester. The entire cohort of students living at the Westin were all from the NUin program, which typically has these students taking their courses abroad at various international universities that NEU partners with.

With regards to the Midtown Hotel, NEU usually (in a "regular" year) only occupies half of that building for housing purposes. The only reason they occupy the whole building this year is because NEU decided not to have any triples (or larger) bedrooms this year due to social distancing limitations.
 
sm89 said:
As someone who lived in Stetson West just over 10 years ago, I liked it. My other NU dorms [Loftman, 110 St Stephen, 144 Hemenway (nice new facade now!)] also worked well for me. I always opted for the older buildings because they were cheaper than West Village, Dav, etc., which also lacked a lot of character and craftsmanship since they were so new at the time and purpose-built.

Northeastern does not have a problem attracting students. The joint venture with ACC makes this whole thing seem more like an "investment" than an attempt at trying to bring students back to campus. ACC is not a charity, it wants to make money in the arrangement. I didn't move off campus because I sought better housing with more bells and whistles, it was because I wanted my own room for $700/month instead of sharing a room in a "nice" building for $1,400/month. You also get to choose your own roommates, have parties, no guest policies, a year-long lease (stability), etc. How does NU plan to overcome the "real" reasons that students don't want to live on campus?
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I also lived in stwest a few years prior. Didn't mean to bag on it in my previous post, I honestly didn't mind it compared to what some of the other freshman options were. However, I was just posing the hypothetical where if NEU had to decide whether to build another Lightview or another Stwest/Steast/Speare on the 840 Columbus lot, you'd be hard pressed to find any reason for the university to settle for the latter.
 
MozartFan0418 said:
bpda.app.box.com

2021-02-10_Institutional Master Plan Amendment (IMP Amendment)_Northeastern University IMP 2013-2023.pdf | Powered by Box

Proposed Amendment to Northeastern's IMP reflecting the addition of a new mixed-use building at 840 Columbus Ave
bpda.app.box.com bpda.app.box.com

institutional Master Plan Amendment
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I noticed that in the amendment they referred to vacating the leased properties in the Fenway. There was no mention of vacating the leased portion of Douglas Park. Now that 840 has been downsized will Douglas still be leased? It is the best of the leased properties.

Also the Punter's redevelopment is mentioned. That is a small triangular parcel. Hard to imagine the uses they mention being housed there in what would be a temporary building.

BTW Thanks for the post!
 
TomOfBoston said:
I noticed that in the amendment they referred to vacating the leased properties in the Fenway. There was no mention of vacating the leased portion of Douglas Park. Now that 840 has been downsized will Douglas still be leased? It is the best of the leased properties.

Also the Punter's redevelopment is mentioned. That is a small triangular parcel. Hard to imagine the uses they mention being housed there in what would be a temporary building.

BTW Thanks for the post!
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I also noticed that they mentioned the punter's redevelopment. My current theory is that it will be temporary extra study space for the college of computer science (khoury ).
maybe rooms for collaboration among students and professors, since Khoury is right next door. You could also include a coffee shop/sandwich shop. Just an idea. Ultimately, I think that the whole Parcel plus the dorms next to it will become more student housing and some academic space similar to the west village H.
 
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Feel like Douglass Park is probably the best of the properties for them not to stop leasing? Housing in the East Fens is not cheap, whereas Lower Rox still has considerable surpluses of essentially vacant land.
 
curcuas said:
Feel like Douglass Park is probably the best of the properties for them not to stop leasing? Housing in the East Fens is not cheap, whereas Lower Rox still has considerable surpluses of essentially vacant land.
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The Fens properties are more or less dumps.
 
I dont think so but they may need to make a bigger PILOT payment or at least a decent campaign contribution.

I dont think Janey has a ton of power over the BPDA while operating as acting mayor. She might be able to fire people but I am pretty sure she cannot make appointments to fill seats with loyalists.
 
meddlepal said:
I dont think so but they may need to make a bigger PILOT payment or at least a decent campaign contribution.

I dont think Janey has a ton of power over the BPDA while operating as acting mayor. She might be able to fire people but I am pretty sure she cannot make appointments to fill seats with loyalists.
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The residential portion of this building will be privately owned and will pay full property tax, just like LightView.
 
Janey's family are big Roxbury dev + construction people. They've been involved in neighboring projects. Doubt there's any hard nos.
 
Suffolk 83 said:
She should explain how building more dorms would exacerbate the housing shortage.
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Don't you just hate when universities propose building 800 bed residential buildings on vacant windswept parking lots? Like come on we have a housing crisis, you could fit two whole single family homes on that parcel!
 
Suffolk 83 said:
She should explain how building more dorms would exacerbate the housing shortage.
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I'm so tired of the same talking points. Can someone explain how building on what used to be parking lots is pushing people out of the community? I'm not originally from Mass, but when I moved here, around the time ISEC was still under construction, that area was dead. Now with ISCE, LIghtview and the park redevelopment that area is more alive than ever. Just the other day people walking around enjoying the nice weather, playing on the fields and tennis courts.

Why is every time NEU proposes a new building people scream "they're expanding into Roxbury!!"? How many buildings does NEU actually own on that side of the tracks? last time I check Roxbury wasn't just Columbus avenue.
 
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MozartFan0418 said:
I'm so tired of the same talking points. Can someone explain how building on what used to be parking lots is pushing people out of the community? I'm not originally from Mass, but when I moved here, around the time ISEC was still under construction, that area was dead. Now with ISCE, LIghtview and the park redevelopment that area is more alive than ever. Just the other day people walking around enjoying the nice weather, playing on the fields and tennis courts.

Why is every time NEU proposes a new building people scream "they're expanding into Roxbury!!"? How many buildings does NEU actually own on that side of the tracks? last time I check Roxbury wasn't just Columbus avenue.
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I think a large part of this is that a lot of NEU students have been indoctrined to think anything south of the tracks is Roxbury, and since many NEU students really don’t ever go past Tremont Street, their perception of Roxbury is quite literally just Columbus and Tremont.

The NEU stretch of Columbus had been desolate for a long time. ISEC and Lightview helped that immensely, but Carter Playground has been a huge part in that. Every time I walk by there, those fields are always in use, both by university students and local community baseball/football/soccer leagues. It’s really revitalized the area; it just needs a bit more commercial elements. Which, if the people who are so against this new ACC dorm would notice, would see that the pedestal of this new building would bring some of that needed commercial (albeit, still not nearly enough, but the idea is there).
 
MozartFan0418 said:
I'm so tired of the same talking points. Can someone explain how building on what used to be parking lots is pushing people out of the community?
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It's making the area more desirable and giving students more cause to be there (whereas [lets face it] neu students in the past probably avoided the area as much as possible). This building (like Lightview) will likely be very expensive. So while normalizing the area in the minds of students, those same students will look for cheaper rents further south, pushing out families.

Zash said:
I think a large part of this is that a lot of NEU students have been indoctrined to think anything south of the tracks is Roxbury
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Everything south of the tracks (and west of Mass Ave) is Roxbury. 🤨
 
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Blackbird said:
It's making the area more desirable and giving students more cause to be there (whereas [lets face it] neu students in the past probably avoided the area as much as possible). This building (like Lightview) will likely be very expensive. So while normalizing the area in the minds of students, those same students will look for cheaper rents further south, pushing out families.
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I feel like this argument would have made sense 5-10 years ago, but this area is already normalized to NU students and has been for awhile. Pretty much every building near the proposed site is northeastern-owned or occupied by northeastern students. Whether this building exists or not isn't going to make a difference in students' perception of the area or their desire to move to surrounding apartments.
 
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