Dorchester Infill and Small Developments

Landlord set to sell his key properties in Adams Village

The owner of two key commercial buildings in Adams Corner intends to sell his high-profile properties, a move that is likely to trigger a new round of redevelopment in Dorchester’s gateway village.

Arthur S. Murphy controls the flagship two-story corner building at 526 Gallivan Blvd. that houses Windy City and China Sky restaurants and the Butcher Shop, along with other office space. Murphy also owns an assortment of storefront condo units along Adams Street. He told the Reporter last week that he is entertaining offers for his entire Adams Corner portfolio.
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Sean Weir, president of the Cedar Grove Civic Association, said that the potential of new ownership – and new investment – in these two commercial properties could mark a big shift in Adams Village. “The economy of the whole village really depends on those little businesses. I’d say Arthur’s properties account for about one-third of the commercial district and so it’s quite a big chunk of it,” said Weir. “Arthur was very involved with everything on the corner and I always thought he was very good to the neighborhood. But he wants to get out of the commercial side of things, and I think a new owner would mean new blood and new life
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http://www.dotnews.com/2014/landlord-set-sell-his-key-properties-adams-village

This could completely transform Adams Village. It really is a huge opportunity for this little commercial district. I hope someone with at least a little bit of vision buys these properties.
 
Plans moving along for $1.7m brewery on Bowdoin Street

Over the next year, an 18,000-square foot abandoned warehouse at 181 Bowdoin St. will be transformed into the first contract manufacturing brewery in the state – a $1.7 million project set to make waves, beginning in the Bowdoin Geneva neighborhood.

“There’s no other facility in Massachusetts, that we know of, that bottles, cans, and kegs to smaller craft brew company contractors,” said Dorchester Brewing Company (DBC) co-founder Travis Lee. “We’re looking to create an intimate, artistic craft setting for multiple craft brewing companies.”

Over the next month, Lee and co-founder Filipe Oliveira will iron out the building’s lease terms with the current owner, the Boston Community Development Corporation. The parcel is worth $137,000, according to the city assessor database. Once the building is in ship-shape, DBC will install roughly $1 million worth of machinery to make the brewery a reality. “If we’re really lucky, we’ll open in June,” said Lee.

The community’s support for the DBC initiative has been highly encouraging thus far,” said Lee. “I’ve worked in real estate for a number of years, and to have near unanimous support for a project is pretty rare.”

“For the last 30 years that I’ve been here, this building has always been empty,” said Oliveira, a founder of Percival Brewing Company, named after nearby Percival Street where he grew up. The company also produces Dot Ale and will be one of the handful of craft brewers operating out of the Bowdoin Street brewery.

As for the brewery’s location in Bowdoin Geneva, Lee and Oliveira consider the area a diamond in the rough, with Lee noting that the same could be said about a number of other locations for nearby breweries, including Harpoon’s location in the Seaport District, Night Shift’s location in Everett, and the Sam Adams brewery in Jamaica Plain. “At one time, they were all in less desirable areas, but people still came to the breweries,” he said. “We like that we can give customers a chance to explore other parts of the neighborhood.”

The space will feature a fully functioning brewery as well as an attached retail space where different companies can showcase their brews to visiting customers, as well as offer tours. DBC’s head brewer will work with the handful of craft brewing companies operating out of the Bowdoin Street location to manufacture and distribute their product.

Though a handful of other breweries call the Boston area home, there is no similar setting for small craft brewing companies to manufacture and bring their product to market. “Strategically, this is a phenomenal opportunity,” said Oliveira. “The proximity to the Boston Market is key. Contractors can brew their beer here and deliver it quickly to the market. Beer will be a day old by the time it gets to consumers, which is pretty impossible, especially for craft brewers.”
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http://www.dotnews.com/2014/plans-moving-along-17m-brewery-bowdoin-street

This is fantastic. That old factory building is in pretty rough shape right now. It'll be great to see it come back to life. As a side note, these guys brew a tasty beer, it's well worth a try.
 
Looks cool and I wish them the best, but I dispute their assertion that they're the first in MA to do contract brewing. I know a facility up in Ipswich does this, I met one of the employees at an event, and he told me that they brew a number of the microbrews that are popular around here, including Clown Shoes and Notch, I believe.
 
Matthew said:
Looks cool and I wish them the best, but I dispute their assertion that they're the first in MA to do contract brewing. I know a facility up in Ipswich does this, I met one of the employees at an event, and he told me that they brew a number of the microbrews that are popular around here, including Clown Shoes and Notch, I believe.
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Mercury Brewing (I believe they own Ipswich Ale Brewery) contracts for Clown Shoes, Notch, Cambridge, Slumbrew and others.

I am not familiar with Dorchester. How safe is this neighborhood? Hows the public transportation? If they brew good beer and have tours and tastings will negative public perception of the safety of the area and lack of public transportation hinder them from enticing visitors to the area? (Thats if its perceived as unsafe and difficult to get too,like I said I no nothing of this area. But I love good beer!).
 
In all honesty the Bowdoin/Geneva area doesn't have a great reputation as far as Dorchester neighborhoods go. That being said, this isn't Chicago's Cabrini–Green high rises in the 80's. No one would have any problems walking around there in daylight. It's largely a low income neighborhood. That's exactly what makes a project like this so damn great. Private money is flowing in, fixing up a longstanding eyesore of a building, by a guy with a fairly good business plan. I'm super excited to visit this place when the project gets finished.

As far as transportation goes, it could be better but it could be worse. One could walk south about 10 minutes down Geneva Ave from the Four Corners stop on the Fairmount line or walk north about 12 minutes from Fields Corner. It's also near the 15, 17, 19 buses.
 
Savin Hill - Regarding Adams Corner: Any new owner should start with a broom and windex. The China Sky building seems it hasn't received a dime in infrastructure investment since the 80's.

Adams Corner has had some great investment over the past 15 years with the Blasis and the Greenhill's guys having well run local eateries, but Gerard seems to be in a race with Murphy to see how sad their properties can look.

What I love about Adams Corner, and it is Adams Corner to the locals, is with the exception of Boston Sports Club, all of the businesses to the north of Gallivan Boulevard are non-chain, all local, and thriving.

As far as needing vision, other than some façade repairs, what do you want? You have a stable, well run, very little, if any, vacancy retail district that attracts local shoppers and is a neighborhood meeting place. Have you noticed all the 1950's and 1960's Irish immigrants who are the core of that neighborhood hanging out in Greenhills, the Eire, and on the corner in front of Gerard's? Do they need to be broomed as part of some vision thing? My dad drives up from Lakeville just to be there with his contemporaries on a Sunday morning. What vision does this area need? A yoga studio? A Starbuck's? A Mead Hall? A 10,000 Villages? Why mess with stability and prosperity?
 
John, I think perhaps we may have a misunderstanding. I love Adams village. You're completely correct that it's fully functional commercial district that works well for the area. It's friendly and neighborhood-y in a way that a lot of Boston has lost. No one is talking about trying to graft Cambridge onto Dorchester. What I dislike is the China Sky/Windy City building. I hate it. I beyond hate it. I hate it's facade, I hate it's billboards, I hate it's dumpy squat massing. I'd love to see a nice gateway building that strongly defines the corner of Adams St. with Gallivan Blvd. maybe something four stories or so. Nothing crazy, just a nice building that invites people in from the southern gateway to the district. The other one story commercial buildings along Adams I think could benefit from a couple of stories of residential on top. More housing, more people, it's better for the local businesses and better for Boston as a whole. Aside from that, and out of the scope of this particular project, it would be cool (and I know that this is unrealistic) to see that surface lot gain a parking garage with the first floor dedicated to retail spaces along Minot street. The area itself doesn't have great public transportation options and it's important to acknowledge that it is rather autocentric. Keep the mix of stores that Adams Village has, keep the neighborhood's charm, these are just little improvements that only add to it.
 
I agree with you with you on the China Sky. However, the real problem is the build it fast, sell it fast, and stock it with lousy tenants on the southerly side of the intersection. I like the bones of the China Sky building. It is what I jokingly refer to as Neighborhood Modernist and can be seen in other places in the metro area, mostly in better condition than this. The billboards stink, but the office space and the retail space have always been filled and serve a need in the area. More residential would be great and the transit options there are better than you think. It is a 10 minute walk to the back door of Ashmont and the 20 and 215 bus give good enough service if you have a timetable.
 
Seems like the Civic Association needs to clear the asphalt out of their own heads.
 
I don't get it. place is literally next to a T stop.

also, theres no parking permits around here. don't think there's a leg to stand on re: parking if its not even to the point of having a market for it in your hood
 
The EGE said:
Seems like the Civic Association needs to clear the asphalt out of their own heads.
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Oh they are awful...Right out of Boston, circa 1974.

Although a lot of people in the neighborhood have a beef with one of the other investors, so there may be some good political karma at play.
 
Max Power said:
I don't get it. place is literally next to a T stop.

also, theres no parking permits around here. don't think there's a leg to stand on re: parking if its not even to the point of having a market for it in your hood
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Eh, there's often no resident permit program in many of the more parked up streets, I find.

It's something about the neighbors being bitchy about permits because that means their buddy Joey from out of state can't use the street to store his personal (or oftentimes commercial) vehicle. Or things like that. And they use space savers year-round anyway.

You know, we're supposed to pay more so that some guy who comes down from NH can enjoy free parking in Boston. Etc etc. And we can't have nice things like housing-over-retail for the same stupid reason.

My street has permit parking. Funny thing is that there's almost always a spot in front of my place, and a bunch on my street, even while people in other parts of the neighborhood complain bitterly about parking, on a daily basis. Now, if I had a car, I'd be golden. ;)
 
I know parking right there can be impossible at certain times so I almost get it even if it's not the best reason to ax a project.
 
What exactly is going on with the Savin Hill Ave parcel? After it was reported that the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association voted against it I came across this bit on Curbed:

DORCHESTER—Big doings last night re: the proposed condo at 120 Savin Hill Avenue, the one stymied by a lack of parking—despite being across from the Savin Hill T stop. The planning subcommittee of the Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association voted last night to support the 14-unit project without parking. A full committee vote is expected in early November. Stay tuned. [Curbed Boston]
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http://boston.curbed.com/archives/2014/10/curbedwire-oct-16-1.php

Is this just sloppy journalism or did something change since the initial reports.
 
In a vacant lot, the story of Boston’s housing crunch

Zero-parking development isn’t a stretch in most of Boston. About one of every three households around the Savin Hill T station are car-free already. It won’t be a tough sell to move 14 condos across the street from the Red Line. And, broadly, the trend line in Boston is heading toward fewer cars, not more. Even so, Boston’s zoning code is badly out of date, and it makes ordinary housing projects like the one in Savin Hill enormously difficult to pull off. More than anything else, this difficulty in getting small-scale housing out of the ground is straining Boston’s housing supply.

Boston’s broken zoning doesn’t just let builders put triple-deckers in neighborhoods where they are commonplace. The city pushes small-scale builders into a long, arduous building approval process — one that’s set up to give neighbors virtual veto power over new building. Big developers working in the downtown core often don’t need good zoning, because they’re used to getting their building permits by cutting deals with Boston development officials. Small builders don’t work on that level.
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/...sing-crunch/lXvT3HFKDORw7zVrAaHJYI/story.html
 
I think the City has come a long way though.

Let's compare:

Old: 95 Parkton Rd JP (suburban one family surrounded by triple deckers and other multi-family building) http://goo.gl/maps/fpQ1x

New: 69 and 71 Parkton Rd JP (new triple deckers in a neighborhood of triple deckers!!) http://goo.gl/maps/bH3HL
 
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