The Residences at Forest Hills | 3694 Washington Street | Jamaica Plain

HenryAlan said:
Can the two of you stop bumping threads without anything to add content wise?
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+2. I don't remotely care how a thread is marked, but I very much do care when what appears to be a bunch of new information on the main board turns out to be useless, and frankly, anal-retentive nothingness.
 
BronsonShore said:
+2. I don't remotely care how a thread is marked, but I very much do care when what appears to be a bunch of new information on the main board turns out to be useless, and frankly, anal-retentive nothingness.
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How about you guys chill? Beeline and goldenretrievers have *consistently* posted useful information and pictures over years in marked contrast to the emoting and height-fetish anti-NIMBY-virtue-signal bullshit that a lot of other posters feel free to bloviate all over these forums -- bumping several threads a day.

I have learned to live with it, and I think we can accept this momentary effort to clean up the metadata.
 
I thought the initial posts by BeeLine to remark the threads was helpful. I didn't see any value in the followup posts in every thread two days later. I think that's the only annoying part.
 
This looks veryyy similar to the one going up in Brighton, I thought it was that for a second.
 
I can’t find the old thread so I’m gonna post it here. I am absolutely sick to find that Harvest has closed. As anyone who went there knows, they had been in financial straits for quite some time. They never should’ve left the South St location. I also noticed tonight that the corner business (was a real estate co I think) in the Jackson Commons building is also closed down. The power substation in roslindale is never going to get a tenant. Neither is the new building in Dudley. I think the city really needs to take a very hard luck at the buildings they are allowing to go up in these windswept, empty parcels. The enthusiasm for the ribbon cutting, coupled with all the right buzzwords like revitalization, gets all the local community people and politicians excited. But, it doesn’t amount to squat if you can’t attract businesses. These failed enterprises need some good hard analysis to figure out what is wrong… Is that the layout? The size? The ranch? What can be done to prevent yet another project on public land from failing?
 
I mean increase density and you increase demand for retail. Unfortunately these newer buildings are probably charging much higher commercial rents so there will be a "transition" (or long-term empty retail, like in many parts of NYC).
 
The building that housed Harvest in its final years, along with the companion building across the street are, despite proximity to Forest Hills, very low density locations and very pedestrian unfriendly. In fact, these buildings made the area less pedestrian friendly than before due to the parking lots and curb cuts (also terrible for cyclists). They would probably work okay as offices, but not for consumer oriented businesses. That may change as the construction on Hyde Park/Ukraine corner comes to completion, but for now, I would never open a store in that location. What is really needed is some more high density housing between there and the Emporium. Right now, that is not anything resembling a neighborhood.
 
I live about equidistant between Harvest and the Centre Street Whole Foods. I walk to get my groceries because I live in a city and I'm not lazy and 98% of the time I chose to walk to Whole Foods, with the main reason being that walking near Forest Hills sucks. The Casey Arborway project should have been done TWO YEARS ago and they are still working on it. Of course they finished everything for the spoiled drivers and put off the work for pedestrians, cyclists and MBTA riders until the very end. In the winter the city of Boston refuses to shovel the sidewalk on Washington street along the Arboretum. Its a disgrace how pedestrians are treated around here and Forest Hills is a great example. The amount of cars and their idiotic drivers in that area is a huge turnoff. Last time I was there I saw a moron driving the wrong way on the arborway. Why are these people allowed to have licenses? The cops do nothing about stuff like that and blocking the box, etc.

Maybe once its all done, two years later than it was supposed to be, I'll start visiting the businesses around Forest Hills again. I do feel bad for the business owners and the employees and I hope the increase in residents from the new buildings will be a benefit to them. A building full of residents is always better than a parking lot.
 
BarbaricManchurian said:
I mean increase density and you increase demand for retail. Unfortunately these newer buildings are probably charging much higher commercial rents so there will be a "transition" (or long-term empty retail, like in many parts of NYC).
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And the retail spaces in these new buildings are HUGE. They don't work for small, neighborhood businesses and they're typically built before securing tenants.

Even the ones built by nonprofts (like the building at the Blessed Sacrament Church and the one on the corner of Centre and Columbus) can't seem to get retail tenants unless they're chains.

Anyway, I expect Forest Hills retail to rebound a bit once the Arborway project is actually done, as long as the new residents don't just continue to drive everywhere.
 
When I lived on Tower St I remember thinking for such an important transit node, the whole area felt disjointed. I'm afraid this development, like the nearby "MetroMark", will do little to remedy that feeling.
 
I like this project quite a bit, but it's kind of sad how small it causes the one story commercial buildings on HP Ave. to look. I'd like to see floors added to those buildings, but I bet that becomes harder now that these units would be blocked by any addition.
 
I agree, the shops are dwarfed by this development. Unless The Residences paid for, air rights is the only term I can think of, over the commercial strip, wouldn't they simply have to live with any new development next door?
 
Yes, you are probably right. However, such construction would require community input as part of the process for requesting a variance. A community significantly made up of people who would lose their views might push back pretty hard. Nevertheless, the store fronts should all have two floors of apartments and/or offices above them.
 
Truth be told, I hope that low-rise commercial strip never gets touched. Not because I'm in love with how it looks, but because if there ever was any development, we'd go from the 13 existing commercial spaces to probably 3 or 4, and end up with way worse urbanism overall.
 
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