Boston – Boston’s Planning Department recently recommended approval of Institutional Master Plans (IMPs) and new development projects to the BPDA board. All were approved.
New housing on Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) parking lots at 980 Harrison Avenue is moving forward. The first phase of redevelopment of the publicly owned BWSC parking lots includes a 6-story building made up of 45 new income-restricted homes. The project is in alignment with the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan and PLAN: Nubian Square. The project will also improve the public realm by widening the sidewalks in the area and creating a tree canopy around the site.
Located in Brighton, 114 of the Boston Housing Authority units at 55 Faneuil Street will be replaced with new units within a new 6-story building. The building will also include new resident amenity space and a new courtyard. This is Phase One of a five phase redevelopment of Faneuil Gardens. In total, the phased redevelopment when complete includes approximately 441 residential units, 258 of which will be one-to-one replacements for the existing public housing units, and the rest will be net-new housing, which will also be income-restricted.
Located in Roxbury’s Nubian Square, the 10 Malcolm X Boulevard project will include a 6-story building with 111 housing units and a 3-story building with 12 homeownership units. There will be 21 income-restricted units across the two buildings. The existing commercial building will remain open during construction. The project will invest more than $350,000 into public realm improvements by enhancing the lighting, widening sidewalks, adding new retail space, public art, and a new public plaza with trees and seating.
The project at 726 Shawmut Avenue in Roxbury will turn six lots, which are currently mostly parking, into 38 housing units and more than 14,000sf of new cultural, commercial, and service space. The ground floor will be open to the public for commercial and cultural uses, including a multi-purpose event space, cultural cafe and bookstore, and access to the mosque and educational spaces above. Sidewalk and streetscape improvements will be made to Shawmut Avenue as part of the project.
The 110 Canal Street project will convert what is currently an office building and restaurant space in the West End into an 82-room hotel with ground floor restaurant space. Due to ongoing city planning efforts to further pedestrianize Canal Street, the developer and the future operator of the hotel space will continue to coordinate with various city departments, including the Planning Department, to consider eliminating the existing parking lot to close the Canal Street curb cut and repurpose this space for a better use.
As part of the approval of the 2024-2034 Franciscan Children’s IMP, the board approved a new project at 30 Warren Street in Brighton to build a new inpatient hospital catering to behavioral health and medical services. This new hospital will replace the services currently within six buildings on the Franciscan Children’s campus, each of which will be demolished in phases as this new building is constructed.
As part of the approval of the 2024-2034 Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center IMPs, the hospitals intend to build a new cancer hospital. The project will be 14 stories and contain 300 beds. The project will include the reconstruction of Joslin Park, as well as significant upgrades to Brookline Avenue. The project will go through its own review process in the coming months.
As part of the approval of the 2024-2034 Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT) IMP, WIT intends to build six new projects within those 10 years including buildings for academic use, administrative use, student housing, student life, parking, and open space. These new projects will also include updates to the area’s street system and public realm, and create new open space. All projects will go through a separate review process in the coming years.
The BPDA board also approved the transfer of 290 N Beacon Street in Brighton to the Boston Housing Authority (BHA). This parcel will be gifted by the developer of a nearby approved project at 155 N Beacon Street to be redeveloped into a permanent arts and culture space and housing.
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In addition to these projects, the board approved:
- The renewal and extension of the Harvard University Longwood Campus Institutional Master Plan
- A contract with a consultant to conduct a Citywide Land Use Needs Assessment
