L Street Station Redevelopment (née Old Edison Plant)| 776 Summer Street | South Boston

I'm guessing this doesn't bode well for anyone expecting anything more than cheap builds and high prices.



Wow.. so I wonder how this would work. It specifies neighborhood residents here and not everyone (discounted or lower flat rates in garages for everyone during nights and weekends are fairly typical). If true as stated, then I'm honestly pretty surprised that the residents were able to get this perk.

You know, I don't know how wise it is for a developer to build more commercial in Boston right now, especially to appease NIMBYs. There's demand for it now but there's an imbalance between commercial and residential and an expected downturn will likely hit commercial space much harder. There's too much pent up demand for residential to be hit too hard.

Why do NIMBYs like commercial and not residential anyways? It makes traffic worse ffs. Like they've never heard of commuters, especially in a city with vastly inadequate housing.
 
I think the average person thinks apartment=2 plus cars on the street. They don't know that commercial development is actually way worse for traffic than residential.

That said, I'm still baffled that people (read the politicos) seem to want an office park here rather than the mixed-use neighborhood the developers proposed. It truly makes no sense. Developers are in it to make a buck and I generally find them not very likable, but this team is taking on a really contaminated site and keeping/rehabbing some very cool historic buildings. It's one of the nicer large proposals we've seen in Boston. And an all commercial is just not what the neighborhood or city needs.
 
I think the average person thinks apartment=2 plus cars on the street. They don't know that commercial development is actually way worse for traffic than residential.

That said, I'm still baffled that people (read the politicos) seem to want an office park here rather than the mixed-use neighborhood the developers proposed. It truly makes no sense. Developers are in it to make a buck and I generally find them not very likable, but this team is taking on a really contaminated site and keeping/rehabbing some very cool historic buildings. It's one of the nicer large proposals we've seen in Boston. And an all commercial is just not what the neighborhood or city needs.

NIMBY's aren't driven by logic. They just want a "win". The feeling that they made developers bow down to them. Their names in the paper never hurts either. That's the only thing that explains how they feel that taking 5 floors off of a 500 foot tall building is somehow a victory. Or in this case that they want to force all commercial instead of residential due to....traffic concerns :confused:
 
Aren't they obsessed with availability of street parking for residents in Southie? Maybe they think that the offices won't impact this because those employees (unless they themselves live in Southie) won't be elligible for residential street parking passes...whereas new residents could be? I mean, we're talking about a part of town were people fight over snow parking space savers.
 
Not really NIMBY in the classical sense -- It's just a continuation of the original limits Southie worked hard to put on residential development in the Seaport back in the days when "Seaport Square" was first proposed
Everyone knew that if you put in a few millions of sq ft of office that there would be a desire for residences -- especially given the cleaned-up harbor and the availability of condos on the water
Southie locals pushed-back hard on the original plans
It's all about Political Power -- though one of the smallest neighborhoods in Boston by population -- Southie has always wielded political power as they have the reputation of delivering votes [the highest % of registered voters actually vote] in local elections

Southie folk don't like new residential development because it would tend to dilute their political base --
Throw another 5,000 units up and its possible that non-Southie voters from the Seaport and Power Plant would control the critical seats [City Council, State Rep, State Senate] where a few hundred votes can make an election
 
The funny part is as a resident of southie one of the only reasons you would even want that sway is to clean up a dilapitated plant and make your neighborhood nicer with the harborwalk etc, so everything theyre fighting. You dont want political sway just so you can ensure your neighborhood stays run down and crappy...
 
So sad.

What i wanna post:
Is this project officially dead yet?
 
i have a question which i wish to ask. i forget which thread the topic was being discussed.
Pardon for posting in a different thread from the previous discussion.

Ok, the population of Boston is 700,000 give or take.
For the love of God,
are college students from other cities/states/nations counted in this figure or not?
 
Yes, we did have that discussion in the 1000 Boylston thread, yes, they are counted.

 
New master plan:


It includes residential. Mod: name of this is "L Street Station Redevelopment | 776 Summer Street | South Boston".
1200+ parking spaces. Evening and weekend use of garage for South Boston residents. Garage entrance appears to be at the north end, with a street access cut into the 'freight corridor' road.

Over 600 residential units, located away from Massport's. port operations and the freight corridor.

Elkins St. becomes a through street, between Broadway and M St, and slices through the middle of Turbine Hall 2. IMO, this is awkward and problematic, as it severs the three turbine halls, and impedes and endangers pedestrian flow between these halls.
 
Extending Elkins Street is the logical thing to do given the size of this parcel and the way it's being redeveloped in sort of quadrants.

Additionally, I think the green and white tile in the turbine halls is beautiful. Is that original, a recreation, or something totally new?
 
Hahaha, phased in over 10 to 15 freakin years?? Are you kidding me? They’re competing with the Big Dig in terms of construction time! What a joke!!
 
Extending Elkins Street is the logical thing to do given the size of this parcel and the way it's being redeveloped in sort of quadrants.

Additionally, I think the green and white tile in the turbine halls is beautiful. Is that original, a recreation, or something totally new?

The green and white tile is original and could be spectacular if it can be restored to look like this.
 
l
Hahaha, phased in over 10 to 15 freakin years?? Are you kidding me? They’re competing with the Big Dig in terms of construction time! What a joke!!
Boston will build about 8,230 units from 2024-2040--
5,760 of which, will be in Allston/Brighton.
6 units in the North End,
24 in Beacon Hill,
185 in Back Bay,
135 Downtown,
535 in the Fenway,
430 in the MCD,
300 in Chinatown,
the rest sprinkled about here and there,
99' buildings will be called "towers," "neighborhood supertalls," etc...........
 
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l

Boston will build about 8,230 units from 2024-2040--
5,760 of which, will be in Allston/Brighton.
6 units in the North End,
24 in Beacon Hill,
185 in Back Bay,
135 Downtown,
535 in the Fenway,
430 in the MCD,
300 in Chinatown,
the rest sprinkled about here and there,
99' buildings will be called "towers," "neighborhood supertalls," etc...........
 

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So neighborhood NIMBY's got bought off with the promise of parking spaces? Wish I was a fly on the wall at the CLF when they got news of that one. :D Time to go find their next con I guess.

I always prefer more housing but 636 units is nothing to sneeze at given the particulars of the project.
 

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