Dedham Developments

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FK4

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Surprised that there isn’t a thread for Dedham. I don’t have pics but saw two different large-appearing projects on Washington, near the Dedham-Boston line. Figured I’d mention.
 
Dedham public safety building u/c.
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https://www.dedham-ma.gov/Home/Components/PhotoAlbum/PhotoAlbum/74/2475#ad-image-2
 
How fitting that one of the last remaining vestiges of the boston and providence railroad branch line that was sold off and developed is being replaced by 4 single family homes.


Developer removes trees, scrub along ancient rail line in West Roxbury to make way for four single-family homes​

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“A developer is getting ready to build four single family homes off Spring Street in West Roxbury, on a former railroad right of way on which steam locomotives once paused to pick up passengers at a small train stop before thundering across a bridge over Spring Street, hauling commuters from Dedham and West Roxbury up to Park Square in Boston.

The last passenger train ran over the long gone Spring Street Bridge in 1940, but even after tearing down the bridge and selling off the land now occupied by the Star Market plaza, the railroad - eventually Penn Central - held onto the right of way until selling it in 1973 to the MBTA in 1973, which then also sat on the land, as one can see on a map of the area. Also left behind: The stone abutment on one side of Spring Street.

Finally, in 2011, the MBTA sold the half-acre stretch along Powell Street between Spring and Cass to a Powell Street resident for $325,040, according to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records. In 2020, he sold the land, pretty much entirely covered in trees and scrub, to developer Anthony Petruziello for $1.03 million, the records show.

Last August, Petruziello got building permits from ISD to put in four houses - unusually for Boston, they required no zoning variances. In January, Petruziello sold the land and building rights for $1.45 million to another developer, Ivan Biesty, who has since put up two signs near the abutment about the project advertising "anticipated completion" this December.

The parcel's railroad history, as part of the West Roxbury Branch, dates to the 1840s, with the opening of a 5 1/2-mile Boston and Providence Railroad branch line….”

https://www.universalhub.com/2024/developer-pulls-out-trees-along-ancient-rail-line
 
Says West Roxbury and not Dedham although it is close to the border.
 
stick n move said:
How fitting that one of the last remaining vestiges of the boston and providence railroad branch line that was sold off and developed is being replaced by 4 single family homes.


Developer removes trees, scrub along ancient rail line in West Roxbury to make way for four single-family homes​

View attachment 49004

“A developer is getting ready to build four single family homes off Spring Street in West Roxbury, on a former railroad right of way on which steam locomotives once paused to pick up passengers at a small train stop before thundering across a bridge over Spring Street, hauling commuters from Dedham and West Roxbury up to Park Square in Boston.

The last passenger train ran over the long gone Spring Street Bridge in 1940, but even after tearing down the bridge and selling off the land now occupied by the Star Market plaza, the railroad - eventually Penn Central - held onto the right of way until selling it in 1973 to the MBTA in 1973, which then also sat on the land, as one can see on a map of the area. Also left behind: The stone abutment on one side of Spring Street.

Finally, in 2011, the MBTA sold the half-acre stretch along Powell Street between Spring and Cass to a Powell Street resident for $325,040, according to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records. In 2020, he sold the land, pretty much entirely covered in trees and scrub, to developer Anthony Petruziello for $1.03 million, the records show.

Last August, Petruziello got building permits from ISD to put in four houses - unusually for Boston, they required no zoning variances. In January, Petruziello sold the land and building rights for $1.45 million to another developer, Ivan Biesty, who has since put up two signs near the abutment about the project advertising "anticipated completion" this December.

The parcel's railroad history, as part of the West Roxbury Branch, dates to the 1840s, with the opening of a 5 1/2-mile Boston and Providence Railroad branch line….”

https://www.universalhub.com/2024/developer-pulls-out-trees-along-ancient-rail-line
Click to expand...

The transportation provision for OLX-Dedham was lost forever when the T sold the lots on Belle Ave. 15+ years ago for single-family homes. Might as well make the whole corridor a monument to waste now.
 
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jklo said:
Says West Roxbury and not Dedham although it is close to the border.
Click to expand...
It's 100% West Roxbury. The Dedham section of the ROW was already obliterated by other single family construction projects. :(
 
stick n move said:
Finally, in 2011, the MBTA sold the half-acre stretch along Powell Street between Spring and Cass to a Powell Street resident for $325,040, according to Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records. In 2020, he sold the land, pretty much entirely covered in trees and scrub, to developer Anthony Petruziello for $1.03 million, the records show.
Click to expand...
This part is insult to inury. $325k for the MBTA, $628k for the squatter.
 
kdmc said:
This part is insult to inury. $325k for the MBTA, $628k for the squatter.
Click to expand...
The T just wanted it off their books; they didn't care one whit about getting fair value. Same with the Belle Ave. property sales that formally nuked the transpo corridor preservation. They got shockingly little for those too, because value wasn't the point...salting the earth on the transpo hold was.
 
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F-Line to Dudley said:
The T just wanted it off their books; they didn't care one whit about getting fair value. Same with the Belle Ave. property sales that formally nuked the transpo corridor preservation. They got shockingly little for those too, because value wasn't the point...salting the earth on the transpo hold was.
Click to expand...
Like, as a result of laziness / incompetance / backwards incentives? Or is there actually a rational reason that a good transit agency would do that?
 
kdmc said:
Like, as a result of laziness / incompetance / backwards incentives? Or is there actually a rational reason that a good transit agency would do that?
Click to expand...
It was during the Romney Administration / Grabauskas GM'ship, circa 2005-07. Right around the time Amtrak started making renewed and serious noises about NEC capacity vs. Needham Line slots and a few state reps started filing bills (never passed) about another re-study of Millis commuter rail to compel the state to make up its mind about what to ultimately do with the corridor long-term. All those doings were starting to uncomfortably center the discourse around rapid transit conversion as a cure for what ails the corridor, and notoriously NIMBY Dedham was of course having none of that. It was a very expansion-hostile leadership at the top, and they sought whatever quid pro quos would turf the renewed interest. Disposing of the path to the many-times-studied Dedham Center terminus at below market value was the most expedient way to do that.

It's not rational, but given who was running the show back then it fit the M.O.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
It was during the Romney Administration / Grabauskas GM'ship, circa 2005-07. Right around the time Amtrak started making renewed and serious noises about NEC capacity vs. Needham Line slots and a few state reps started filing bills (never passed) about another re-study of Millis commuter rail to compel the state to make up its mind about what to ultimately do with the corridor long-term. All those doings were starting to uncomfortably center the discourse around rapid transit conversion as a cure for what ails the corridor, and notoriously NIMBY Dedham was of course having none of that. It was a very expansion-hostile leadership at the top, and they sought whatever quid pro quos would turf the renewed interest. Disposing of the path to the many-times-studied Dedham Center terminus at below market value was the most expedient way to do that.

It's not rational, but given who was running the show back then it fit the M.O.
Click to expand...

I don't think Dedham is any more pro-transit now, so I'm not sure there has ever been or would ever have been a chance to extend the Orange Line there other than the BERy Map.

Plus, I'm not sure a VFW Parkway park-and-ride serves Dedham that much worse than a terminus closer to Dedham Center would, and it picks up the Baker Street corridor, Oak Hill Park, and the Cutler Park area of Dedham into the bargain.
 
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F-Line to Dudley said:
The T just wanted it off their books; they didn't care one whit about getting fair value. Same with the Belle Ave. property sales that formally nuked the transpo corridor preservation. They got shockingly little for those too, because value wasn't the point...salting the earth on the transpo hold was.
Click to expand...

Good thing they don't need the money for improvements or anything..........
 
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75-125 Stergis Way ​

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stergis 2

150+ Unit Multifamily Proposed Near Legacy Place in Dedham​


“Norblom Company is planning a 4-story multifamily building at 75-125 Stergis Way adjacent to Legacy Place. The developer would demolish the existing commercial buildings on the site and construct a new development to include 154 apartments with 241 off-street parking spaces. Units would be primarily a mix of 1 & 2 bedrooms with 23 units designated affordable.”


https://www.bldup.com/posts/150-unit-multifamily-proposed-near-legacy-place-in-dedham

Judging by the render it appears to be this building and the similar one diagonally down from it and to the left.
IMG_0229.jpeg
 
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