South Bay Center Expansion | Dorchester

[timsox6]

The owner of the South Bay shopping center in Dorchester is proposing a major expansion that would result in construction of several six-story buildings containing up to 500 apartments, hotel rooms, a cinema and stores.

The Edens proposal would significantly expand South Bay, with several large buildings adding a residential dimension to what is now a commercial shopping complex. The project would include up to 500 housing units, 200 hotel rooms and 115,000 square feet of retail space.

Edens also wants to add a 65,000-square-foot cinema and two new parking garages, along with new roads and open space around the new buildings.

No details yet, but this sounds...okay. Housing could be good. Hotels and parking garages though-- this area will continue to be car-centric.

 

[palindrome]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

Could be good, but could also be terrible and lock southbay into a semi suburban area for the next 25 years. I will wait for a site plan.

 

[HenryAlan]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

The irony is that SB Center is pretty close to some good, walkable neighborhoods. Some infill development, done right, along with some tweaking of the surrounding street layout might actually fix what ales that location. What it needs most is a better pedestrian connection to Andrew Square.

 

[Boston02124]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

I walked to SB from Andrew sq for the 1st time last week I was surprised how fast of a walk it was!

 

[Suffolk 83]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

I like urban, walkable neighborhoods but not everything needs to be like that. South bay is far from a great spot, but I really like its convenience. Like this during this week its nice not to worry about parking, space savers and snow emergencies.


Living there would probably suck though and the movie theatre would no doubt be sketchy

 

[George_Apley]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

This is good first move to re-develop the area.

 

[underground]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

If they could bare minimum start moving towards what Assembly's done, that would be a win. Build some good stuff now, integrate it with the strip mall, and then deal with the strip mall later.

 

[JSic]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

After the Seaport is all built out (I know, that will take a while), this area will be the next frontier.

 

[George_Apley]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

Where's all the light industrial going to go when the South Bay area gets the complete redev (which I assume it will in the next couple of decades)?

 

[FenwayResident]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

South Bay to Tremont street is only slightly further than Hynes Convention Center to Tremont street (going down Mass Ave). Shawmut Ave is actually directly halfway between Hynes and South Bay at 0.9 miles from both spots.

If they developed that triangle between Mass Ave, Southampton Street, and the Commuter Rail the walk to the South End wouldn't be bad at all. Except for the pit of despair that is BMC.

 

[Arlington]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

After the Seaport is all built out (I know, that will take a while), this area will be the next frontier.

Between the Seaport being "all spoken for" and the Olympics looking south of South Station, I'd say that South Bay is the frontier right now.

Sure, they haven't built all of the Seaport yet, but if you're a developer or an insurance/pension investor and don't know where your 2020 projects are going to go, you gotta be looking in places like South Bay or New Balance or West Station.

 

[Jahvon09]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

First time hearing about this. Where would they put all that stuff? Isn't there still a hotel there now?

 

[Suffolk 83]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

As da maya of dis fine city era shouldnt youa now projects in dis area? (seriously dude get a new picture)

 

[Savin Hill]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

South Bay plan draws praise, hope for right deal

Almost two years ago, abutting civic associations came together to create “Citizens Connect to South Bay” and wrote a master plan for the 10.2 acres.

“The initial letter of intent is in line with a lot of the concepts of the charette discussions” held by the citizens connect group, said Desmond Rohan, an executive board member of the McCormack Civic Association. The Citizens Connect group is back up and running in response to the Edens expansion proposal.

http://www.dotnews.com/2015/south-bay-plan-draws-praise-hope-right-deal

This is good to hear. Perhaps there won't be as much community opposition to this as I initially feared.

 

[sm89]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

Why is it that they haven't released anything at least showing which parcels they're talking about? Obviously some renderings of the proposed buildings would be awesome, but we should have at least a map of the land by now.

I've been inundated with requests for changes on Clapp and Enterprise recently. Making them one ways, prohibiting parking here, adding parking there. Hopefully this project has some improvements planned for these streets since the cement plant they plan to demolish abuts Enterprise St.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

That article mentions a charette which would indicate they have a basic idea of what they want but will probably have to do some more design/site engineering work to see what is possible.

 

[Hutchison]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

Here's the PNF: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/getattachment/6cdb8fcd-c238-451a-9f90-d390951c49d9

 

[datadyne007]

Re: South Bay Center Expansion

Here's the PNF: http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/getattachment/6cdb8fcd-c238-451a-9f90-d390951c49d9

Thanks!

...Bing... Bang... BOOM!

 

[fattony]

Reminds me of Assembly. And I count that as a good thing.

 

[Proposition Joe]

Do they really need that parking garage considering that they are building next to a giant asphalt desert? I hope that when they start to redevelop those parking lots they don't devote too much space to additional parking garages.