From the Community

The Brynx Receives 2020 Preservation Massachusetts Award

By |

The Brynx apartment building recently was recognized by Preservation Massachusetts for their 2020 Preservation Awards. Located on South Huntington Avenue, and steps from Olmstead Park, The Brynx is a two-building rental apartment community. It combines both the 1920’s Shepley Bulfinch-designed details and character of the original structure—formerly known as the Goddard House—with the contemporary feel of the newly-built property. The Brynx was honored as one of the best transformative projects that revitalizes the best of the past for something good for the future. Honoring the original architecture and timeless features, the team at The Brynx remixed the property for modern living, nearly 100 years after the building first opened.

2,126 Views
Neighborhood Life

Most-Read Stories of 2016: Goats and Gluttony

By |

As 2017 begins, here's a look at the five most-read stories of 2016 here at Jamaica Plain News. 5. Man Shot Outside 7-Eleven
Luckily, and thanks the efforts of police and residents, crime was not overall a huge story in JP in 2016. However, isolated violence did continue this past year. Jeffrey Kelly, 28, was killed outside the South Huntington 7-Eleven in August.

2,089 Views
Government
Logo of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Burst Water Pipes Force Closure of VA

By |

The record cold over the weekend was too much for the aging plumbing at the VA in Jamaica Plain. According to NECN, appointments at the facility are cancelled until at least Thursday. The high-rise building, a well-known landmark for the South Huntington area, did not have to be evacuated, NECN reported. However, several patients were taken to other facilities. WBUR reported that veterans who have appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday should call first.

3,055 Views
Real Estate

Olmsted Place Developer Objects to Adjacent Development of Goddard House

By |

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.

2,940 Views
File photo: Olmsted Place Apartments under construction on Nov. 19, 2014 at the site of the Home for Little Wanderers.
Development

One South Huntington Development Opens; Another Files Formal Plans

By |

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.

1,649 Views
File photo: Olmsted Place Apartments under construction on Nov. 19, 2014 at the site of the Home for Little Wanderers.
Real Estate

Lottery Announced for 37 Affordable Apartments at Olmsted Place

By |

The Boston Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday announced a lottery for 37 affordable apartments in Olmsted Place, a luxury complex overlooking Leverett Pond and Olmsted Park. The development has been a center of controversy, including a lawsuit by the JP Neighborhood Council that led to the developer creating a $150,000 mitigation fund. That money will be split between two JP non-profits, with most of it going to City Life/Vida Urbana to aid in tenant organizing. The market-rate units at Olmsted Place begin at $2,600 a month, according to the development's website. Below is the announcement from the BRA, including important details on income limits and how to apply.

3,713 Views
Real Estate

Letter to the Editor: Report on JPNC Left Out Key Information

By |

The report in Jamaica Plain News as to the Neighborhood Council’s decision at the suggestion of the Jamaica Pond Association to direct $5,000 of the 161 South Huntington Ave. litigation settlement funds to the Fund for Jamaica Pond Park, is not accurate as it does not mention the good works of the fund, which is under the supervision of the Park Department. (“The $5,000 voted for the Fund ... would double [its] assets ... In its past four IRS filings it has never had a balance of more than $5,000”).

1,551 Views
Real Estate

Olmsted Place Developer’s $150K to Fund Tenant Organizing, Park Work

By |

An example of the work done by City Life/Vida Urbana. This is a City Council hearing on "just cause" evictions. Credit: City Life/Vida Urbana

On Tuesday the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council voted 10-1 to recommend grants totaling $150,000 to two JP organizations. The money comes from the mitigation fund from the Boston Residential Group, developers of Olmsted Place Apartments at 161A South Huntington Ave. City Life/Vida Urbana would receive $145,000 for its two-year "Health Through Housing Justice" program along the Washington Street corridor; $5,000 would be given to  to the Fund for Boston Parks and Recreation on behalf of the Jamaica Pond Association for improvements to Jamaica Pond.

1,716 Views
Development

Tenant Group Eyed to Get $150K in Neighborhood Council Deal

By |

Boston Residential Group has completed the exterior of its enormous housing development on the western edge of Jamaica Plain overlooking Leverett Pond. Marketing of the 196 mostly luxury apartments is well underway with slogans like "Where Cattails Meet Concierge " and "Where Pondside Meets Poolside." The developers of what's now called Olmsted Place Apartments had originally offered to build at their expense a public walkway connector from the 3.5 acre site to the Jamaicaway as a means of settling a zoning lawsuit brought by the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council. The site is the former Home for Little Wanderers. At the February meeting member Ben Day reported that the Architectural Access Board did not give a waiver for construction.

3,734 Views
Transportation

Hemmed-In 39 Bus Causes South Huntington Gridlock

By |

39 Bus got too close to parked car, traffic stopped both directions on South Huntington @universalhub @MBTA pic.twitter.com/eJxinJcKvS— Aidan Ackerman (@aidanackerman) March 10, 2015

Tuesday morning, a 39 Bus got stuck by a row of parked cars, causing a massive traffic tie-up. The incident happened on South Huntington, where parking spaces are taken up by snow and then parked cars block a travel lane. Residents complained for weeks of a similar situation on Hyde Park Avenue before the city finally brought in snow throwers to clear the roadway.

1,440 Views