Battery Wharf | North End | Waterfront

Re: Battery Wharf

Where's the grocery store that was promised? This is indeed a lovely development and I've enjoyed many walks there, but .... NO RETAIL....can't sustain a mini-neighborhood without amenities.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

I love this development, but I could never last in such a transit hole for this location. The #4 bus doesn't quite cut it. It just feels like such a long walk to Haymarket or Aquarium.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

^That's why you put your Bentley in the basement.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

The issue with foot traffic is that it's basically hidden in the backside of the neighborhood. No one's just walking past it - you have to be heading that way. And like mentioned above, you're pretty far from the subway (the 4 really only runs a couple times a day for little old ladies who used to use the elevated Orange). Battery gets none of the usual North End foot traffic that helps even the shittiest of the shitty places down on Hanover, Salem, etc, and you can tell from the business space down there: the restaurant has had a pretty tough time despite a great patio; Bottles across the street is a great liquor store, but really doesn't get much traffic; and there are two empty retail spots in the development that have been empty since it went up.

To succeed down there, I think you probably have to be able to cater solely to the hotel crowd, be able to operate solely as a neighborhood amenity/convenience, or some combination of both. Destination shopping/dinning like the rest of the neighborhood has probably isn't going to cut it. That being said, I don't think the hotel/condos are really struggling. They seem more than happy to go along as is, and it's not like its even remotely a disaster.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

If the Harborwalk extended behind the Coast Guard Base and/or around Union Wharf, there would be more foot traffic on Battery Wharf. The number of times pedestrians get spat back out onto Commercial Street generally keeps them there.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

Commercial Street just feels underutilized to me in general. It seems like the majority of the storefronts were bricked up around the time the EL came down.

I wonder if the obliteration of Atlantic Ave between the Long Wharf and Rowes Wharf also contributes to it feeling like a side street.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

Speaking of underutilized Commercial Street, what's the story with the funky little modernist duo where it splits off at Atlantic Ave? What was its original use?

9079544527_8fc90c2da7_b.jpg
 
Re: Battery Wharf

^ I am pretty sure it was a dry cleaners as recent as 18 months ago when I lived right on the street.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

It's the innovation center in a decade.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

choo said:
^ I am pretty sure it was a dry cleaners as recent as 18 months ago when I lived right on the street.
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The second building (out of frame at right) is the one with the dry cleaners.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

Sadly a harsh reminder that if you build it, sometimes they won't come.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

Imagine if they shined it up. There's nothing else like it around these parts.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

If Battery Wharf tried programming like Rowes Wharf in the summertime (bands on a floating dock Monday through Thursday, movies Friday), that might help attract people to it.

The Harborwalk does go through Union Wharf. (I used to work there.)
 
Re: Battery Wharf

kz1000ps said:
Speaking of underutilized Commercial Street, what's the story with the funky little modernist duo where it splits off at Atlantic Ave? What was its original use?

9079544527_8fc90c2da7_b.jpg
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly, it was built as a gas station. It received a lot of attention as part of the 'New Boston'.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

Ron Newman said:
The Harborwalk does go through Union Wharf. (I used to work there.)
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Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but when coming from the north, it spits you out awkwardly into a gated parking lot where you feel as though you are trespassing on private property. Unable to continue along the harbor, you walk through the parking lot, by the gate and out onto Commercial Street.

Coming from the south, there is no indication that walking by the gate into the parking lot on Union Wharf will lead you to the Harborwalk.

I don't think it's a big deal, but it is certainly an awkward discontinuity.
 
Re: Battery Wharf

davem said:
Commercial Street just feels underutilized to me in general. It seems like the majority of the storefronts were bricked up around the time the EL came down.

I wonder if the obliteration of Atlantic Ave between the Long Wharf and Rowes Wharf also contributes to it feeling like a side street.
Click to expand...

Columbus Park is packed and foot traffic seems to carry pretty well up towards Billy Tse's, Anthony's, Starbucks, the 4 Winds, etc., but yeah, use declines the further you get towards Battery Wharf. I don't know what really can or should be done about it though. It's just not a street with major through traffic. I mentioned it above, but the issue is that Commercial Street is really just the road along the backside of the neighborhood. Back in the day, it was the industrial waterfront, but now it's basically just residential, a few neighborhood restaurants/stores, and park space (which is all really nice and well used by the way).
 
Re: Battery Wharf

PaulC said:
If I remember correctly, it was built as a gas station. It received a lot of attention as part of the 'New Boston'.
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Of course it was a gas station! I mean what else could those little things have been.

And looking at old aerials, it seems to have gone up right around 1969-70. Does that jive with your memory, Paul?
 
Re: Battery Wharf

It may have been just before then. I'll look in some of my Boston books to see if mentioned. It was kind of a big deal when it was built, or at least in the type of articles I followed. I think it may have been a party balloon store after that.
 
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