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Historical considerations mean delays for Roslindale substation restaurant
By adamg on Fri, 08/04/2017 - 12:14pm
The Bulletin reports the Third Rail, chef Chris Douglass's restaurant in the giant old trolley-substation space in Roslindale Square, is taking longer than expected because of unspecified issues related to the fact that the structure is officially a historic landmark.
The name is an homage to the trolleys the substation used to power, although trolleys don't use third rails.
A craft-beer shop opened in the substation basement in January.
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Comments
This is too bad......
It will get done, but the fact that this property has taken so long to be put for bid, sold, renovated and is now so close to being completely occupied only to have an additional stop signs put up is too bad. When I bought my home in Roslindale in 2004 they were talking about a restaurant in this property, and in 2017 they are still talking.....a lot closer.....but not finished.
Again
No kidding it's historic, we didn't go into a wormhole, build it in the future, and bring it back to 2017.
The debate is to whether or not it's historically significant.
Historic LANDMARK
Historic LANDMARK is a special designation. It's not the same thing as being built before 2017. There are places built before 2017 that don't have this designation. So no, it's not obvious that it's a historical LANDMARK. It has a specific definition. Are you locked out of Google?
No Historic Designation Holdup
The substation is not a designated historic landmark. It is, however, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which is an honorary designation that carries no restrictions on what a property owner can do with the property. Being listed on the National Register does allow a property owner to receive tax benefits for qualifying rehabilitation costs that must be signed off by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Such qualifying work might include things such as restoring historic windows true to the original design. That would be a matter for the property owner / developer but not for the tenant / restaurant coming in. There is probably more to this story than what is reported.
Thank you
I was coming here to say this.
It's not a Landmark, they are probably getting up to 20% of the cost of the rehab in tax credits. It's a great program that creates tax revenue for the government. But you need to have a team that knows about old buildings to keep everything on track.
Oxymoron of the year
Read it aloud five times. I'll just leave it here.