Allston-Brighton Infill and Small Developments

Oh, well, if it replaced a parking lot, who can be against it?
 
It's not just that it replaced a parking lot. It could have been a big box like the Staples next door. It could have been a one-story taxpayer like the buildings in JFK Crossing down the street. Instead it's relatively tall, for the area, and includes four discrete retail spaces - that means there will be four different uses occupying the ground floor alone, as opposed to one large bank or pharmacy.
 
Well, that clinches it.

(Maybe some awnings would help the look.)
 
Not necessarily to disagree, but what's wrong with JFK Crossing? It's a pleasant, walkable commercial district with a pretty strong (though low) streetwall.
 
The lowness. It was born out of an absurdly absolutist early 20th century ideology that all uses (i.e. commercial, residential, etc.) had to be strictly separated. Surely its character would have never been impeded by 1-2 floors of apartments or offices over each one of these buildings, which would have added a comfortable and healthy degree of density (and better aesthetic proportion) to the area. But it's impossible there now - probably less possible there, because it is so quaint and arboreal, than in any other 1 story commercial district in metro Boston.
 
Happy Days are here to stay..

In Allston, 'Closed' is the sign of the times

By Megan Woolhouse
Globe Staff / March 26, 2009

First the Korean video store closed. Weeks later, the nearby Indian restaurant followed suit, as did a popular Middle Eastern cafe, a burrito spot, and a neighborhood hardware store.

Marty's Liquors, which closed its doors last weekend, may be the most recent and high-profile business to fold in Allston, but it is far from the first. In the last four months, more than half a dozen Allston businesses within a block of one another have been shuttered.

"In this neighborhood, we do see a lot of turnover, and we've been working for a long time to combat that," said Katie Reed, executive di rector of the nonprofit Allston Village Main Streets project. "We react to how the business community is feeling and their concerns, and right now people are very wary."

Allston is a colorful, gritty hodgepodge of homegrown businesses, inexpensive ethnic restaurants, and stores that cater to a mix of students from Boston University, Boston College, and Harvard, as well as longtime residents. But the offerings have become a little less diverse recently with the closing of Reef Cafe, Eats & Treats Creperie, Rangoli Indian Restaurant, and Burritos on Fire on Brighton Avenue. Kachi, a Korean video store, and Economy Hardware on Harvard Avenue are also gone.

A homemade sign on brown paper in the window of the hardware store read: "Lost our lease."

The shop, one of several owned by Brookline native Larry Friedman, closed March 14 after 10 years in business.

"Our business was changing and going down, and the rents were high," Friedman said. "It just didn't work for us."

Students are not shopping as they used to, he said.

"They're hearing from their parents they don't have as much money," Friedman said. "They have to decide whether to take out a loan or finish at a state school. It's a lesson in real life."

Harold Brown, one of Allston's largest private landlords, downplayed the idea that high rents and a down economy were driving business out. He said he has lost only one tenant, though a major one: Marty's Liquors.

The loss followed months of lease negotiations turned sour. Marty's owner, Marty Siegal, paid Brown $450,000 a year in rent last year under the terms of his 10-year lease, Brown said. When the lease expired this year, Brown and Siegal, former business partners, could not agree on terms of a new lease.

Brown said this week that while he initially raised Siegal's rent 50 percent in a proposed lease, he followed it with an offer of a 30 percent increase and ultimately offered a three-year lease that decreased the rent to $300,000 the first year and $325,000 the next two.

"We shook hands and we thought it was over," Brown said of the deal. "Then about a week later, his lawyer called and said they would like the new rent, but they wanted it another seven years, which we would not go along with."

Siegal called Brown's initial offer "exorbitant" in an interview Saturday, saying that his rent over the last decade had already been too high. He also said Brown's final offer discounted rent for two years, not three.

"I didn't have any interest in talking to them . . . they were so out of the ballpark," Siegal said. "I said, 'I'm going to bail you out [in this difficult economy], and you're going to jack up the rent in two years?' We're getting out of here."

The prime site, on the corner of Commonwealth and Harvard avenues, is vacant. Brown said several banks, a car dealership, a couple of convenience stores, and a regional food chain have shown interest in leasing it.

Reed said that a Japanese restaurant will move into the former Eats & Treats Creperie and that a Mexican restaurant will open in the spot the Reef Cafe occupied for six years. Burritos on Fire has posted a "for rent" sign.

The site of the Bostonian Video Store, which closed in February, she said, remains available. So does Kachi Video, a Korean video rental store that inhabited a large, two-story space along Harvard Avenue until November.

Referring to Kachi and Marty's Liquors, Reed said those vacancies cause her the most concern. "Those are big spots," she said. "It's going to take someone with a big commitment to move into them."

Link
 
Megan Woolhouse said:
Marty's Liquors, which closed its doors last weekend...
Click to expand...

I saw this in person last Friday night, with some folks that lived steps away from Marty's 15 years ago. Many a crazy night began at Marty's. My mates were in town for the BUFF, and we hit it pretty hard at the Model Cafe, which looked almost like it did in 1995 (add LCD TVs; subtract smokers).
 
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st e's
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Ugh.

The lawn or whatever was better.
 
Definitely. I go by that building four or five times a week, and it's easily the ugliest and most unworthy-of-its-site building in the area.
 
The one thing that the old building had going for it was this sort of, "Mad Scientist's Mountaintop Lair" vibe. With the new lump in the front, you don't get that any more.
 
"Mad Scientist's Mountaintop Lair" -- perfect description!

And yes, the new building totally dominates the inbound vista now. Like I said, it's most unworthy of its site.
 
It did ruin the front yard ,however as a stand alone building it aint bad.
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As a standalone building it's crap. The scale and vocabulary of it are all wrong. It would look sinister or oppressive if it weren't in fucking pink. And the pink doesn't even rise to the level of ironically subduing its severity.
 
What is this again -- a Walgreens? Out in Union Square:

img1282p.jpg
 
palindrome said:
New CVS coming in october in the location of the old Comp USA in brighton.
Click to expand...

Demolition has already begun:

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And some kind of site testing is underway where the Lowe's would go:

img1314v.jpg


Lastly, I went by the Walgreens last night on a bus, and it looked to be open; shelves were stocked, but I didn't actually see anyone inside the building.
 
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