Development

Demolition Begins on Washington Street to Make Way for Mixed-Use Development

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Demolition work is well underway on the prefab metal buildings at the former Flanagan & Seaton Motor Car Co. site at 3521-3529 Washington St., making way for 132 units of housing, retail space and a four-story self-storage building. David Williams, director of market development at SSG Development, told Jamaica Plain News this week that the buildings will be razed down to the foundation. Soil testing and remediation, as necessary, will then begin; the level of possible contamination is unknown at this time, he said. SSG is building the self-storage building on McBride Street opposite English High School, and is doing prep work for the condos to be built by New Boston Ventures.

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Neighborhood Life

Egleston Square Main Streets Receives Love Your Block Grant

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Egleston Square Main Streets Executive Director Luis Cotto got the call personally on Friday from Mayor Marty Walsh that Egleston Square had been awarded $2,700 from the Love Your Block program to beautify the stone garden sitting area at Atherton Street, Columbus Avenue and Washington Street. "We'll be working with [the] Egleston Square Neighborhood Association to have this happen," said Cotto. "We'll purchase plants and flowers and organize a work day and art fair at the Stonehenge sitting area with artists and musicians." "We also have enough for a little free library. We have artists who have agreed to paint the bookshelf and the Egleston Branch Library will donate books to start us off," said Cotto. "The crazy part is we got the acknowledgment call from the mayor himself.

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Arts

Pop-Up Art in Egleston Square Building Before It’s Developed

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Developers often buy properties and let them sit empty and boarded up until they get permitting and financing to raze the site to build anew. But City Realty is going against the grain. Last fall, City Realty approached Egleston Square Main Streets (ESMS) to ask for ideas about how their recently acquired property at 3195 Washington St., the closed Jackson Glass building, could be put to use while development plans are determined. On Friday night, about 100 people gathered in the empty Jackson Glass building to discuss plans to use the building temporarily for arts. City Realty's idea immediately caught the imagination of Egleston Main Streets Director Luis Cotto.

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From the Community

Discuss the Future of Washington Street for Jamaica Plain/Roxbury on Jan. 21

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The final theme in the year-long study of the Jamaica Plain/Roxbury Washington Street Corridor will be discussed at English High School on Thursday, January 21 at 6 pm. This is public meeting and doors open at 5:30 pm.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The topic is "Moving Around Study" for the January workshop, which will focus on how the Washington Street area for JP and Roxbury connected with other places. Workshop focus points led by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, include asking how do people travel the study area and what is the experience like getting to the study area of Washington Street. How can these experiences be more pleasant? What are places you want to be be connected to?

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Real Estate

Olmsted Place Developer Objects to Adjacent Development of Goddard House

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Here's a new NIMBY trend: one developer doesn't like the development of another developer right next door. Curtis Kemeny, CEO and president of Boston Residential Group, which just completed Olmsted Place Apartments at 161 South Huntington Ave., wrote and hand-delivered a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Dec. 7 "strongly object[ing]" to the proposed plan for redevelopment of adjacent Goddard House; adding that "significant further discussion is required before it should be allowed to proceed." A BRA spokesperson said the matter was a "simple misunderstanding." Goddard House was a nursing home that closed in 2012.

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Development

Third JP/Rox Plan Workshop Considers Change in the Neighborhood

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Although the audience was a bit thinner than at the previous meetings, the energy, enthusiasm and optimism was unmistakable at the third entry in a series of workshops examining the JP/Rox Plan Washington Street corridor. "We want you to look at areas that are changing and are likely to change," said Marie Mercurio, a senior planner at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. "We want to understand those areas ripe for change. We will take those ideas back to the office and model out those areas to create an implementation strategy for zoning recommendations." An interagency team has been advising the JP/Rox planning process since July, and "there is an emerging vision," Mercurio said.

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Real Estate

BRA Approves General Heath Square Apartments

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On Thursday the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) approved the General Heath Square Apartments, a joint venture of Jamaica Plain NDC and Back of the Hill CDC. This will be a 47-unit apartment building on a three-fourths acre site at Heath and Bromley streets that is currently vacant lots. The entire project is 56,290 square feet with an estimated total project cost of $17,400,000, according to the BRA. The entire building will be affordable units with a mix of one-, two-  and three-bedroom apartments. Two-thousand square feet of the project will be for  community and office space, including covered bicycle and car parking spaces.

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Jamaica Plain People

Frank Shea Returns Home to Become the Director of Urban Edge

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Frank Shea began work as Urban Edge's fourth director in its new office space on Columbus Avenue on November 3. It is the fourth office space for Urban Edge. He is also the first director who did not come out of senior staff at the agency in its 41-year history. Proudly he said, "I am the first director born and raised in Jamaica Plain." Born in 1961 as a small boy living in the St.

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