Renters began moving into Olmsted Place, $84 million, 196-unit apartment building on 161A S. Huntington Ave., this past week.
The Boston Globe reports that rents in the luxury building, which boasts a doorman and a pool deck, among other amenities, start at $2,600 a month for studio apartments and top $5,000 for three-bedroom units.
The story also provides a South Huntington lay of the land:
"[T]he five-story complex is a big change from the Victorians and small brick multifamily buildings that make up much of Jamaica Plain’s rental stock. And it won’t be the last. Down the street at 105A South Huntington, a 195-unit building known as Serenity is set to begin construction around the end of the year. And next door to Olmsted Place, at the old Goddard House nursing home, Eden Properties and Samuels & Associates are planning a 169-unit apartment building."
Formal plans for the old Goddard House site were filed this week, reports Universal Hub, which notes that the proposal calls for spaces for 170 bicycles but only 83 cars. According to the developer:
"It is anticipated that vehicle ownership by Project residents will be low based on the following demographic and vehicle ownership trends, transit oriented location, walkable access to services and amenities, and access to major job centers by transit."
Proximity to the Longwood Medical Area and other big-time employers is likely to be a draw to these locations, perhaps accounting for the higher charged rents and anticipated lower rates of car ownership. Read the full stories in the Globe and on UHub for more details (many of the reader comments are insightful as well).
Last year, Jamaica Plain News documented the beginnings of construction at the Olmsted Place site. The developer of the project put up $150,000 to fund tenant organizing and park improvements under a deal reached after the JP Neighborhood Council filed suit over zoning. The parcel was once the Home for Little Wanderers.