development

Mark Levy analyzes a Globe story that purports to find a growing "backlash" against tech development in the city, based largely on the fact that the Forest City project got defeated:

"The backlash has caught the notice of biotechnology leaders, who are asking whether the industry is still welcome in Cambridge," Robert Weisman wrote on Saturday.

This would indeed be an interesting story - if there were any examples in this story of biotechnology leaders asking that. There aren't.

The Herald reports four development groups have submitted proposals for a city lot next to the waterfront restaurant complex, ranging from more restaurants to a boutique hotel to a "floating event space."

Seems neighbors of the old Bartlett bus yard on Washington Street didn't realize the community development group that now oversees the site was going to let a contractor use the yard at all hours for work related to a project to repair water and sewer pipes in Roxbury.

Based on this discussion, residents thought the work at the site would stop at 7 p.m. Instead:

We have heard the noise as well and it has even woken up our 18 month old son a number of times. The work has been going on all night. Heavy equipment and trucks seem to be constantly moving with beeping and heavy metal plates being shifted as well and gravel and sand being moved to various locations.

Nuestra Community Development Corp., which wants to build mixed-income housing and retail space on the 8.5-acre site, replied the contractor has permission to do its work 24 hours, but that it's been asked to be "courteous" to neighbors.

Ferdinand livecam.

The Dudley Square building is being turned into the new headquarters of the Boston school department.

Via Both Ends of Dudley.

The Boston Business Journal reports on a presentation on the new residential tower that will allegedly fill the Filene's Memorial Hole. And while the developers aren't saying how much it'll cost to live 50 stories above Washington Street, the Journal finds one apartment expert who predicts "a 350-square-foot studio will cost $3,000 or more per month."

Adam Castiglioni reports on a BRA vote tonight to allow a 19-story hotel with 240 "micro guest rooms" at Stuart and Tremont.

Soon, all that will be left are the ghosts.

Demolition crews are, finally, tearing down the hulking old Dainty Dot Hosiery building on Kingston Street, where Chinatown meets the Leather District and the Greenway. Once they're done with the 123-year-old building, construction crews will start work on a 26-story apartment building. So if you want to see a reminder of when the area was filled with clothing factories, you need to get down there soon.

More on the building's history - which started when it was erected after the Great Fire of 1872.

In East Boston, that is.

The Boston Business Journal reports the chain has signed a lease for the development going in where the Herald used to be.

Jason Schwartz says:

The South End getting a Whole Foods is sort of like its own version of achieving manifest destiny.

The Crimson reports on a six-story, 300-apartment building with retail space proposed for Barry's Corner on what is now a Harvard parking lot and "a semi-underground" building. The Crimson dourly notes the structure would be taller than nearby Harvard Stadium.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports a developer plans to turn the old Blessed Sacrament Church into condos going for up to $725,000 apiece.

The Boston Business Journal reports on a BRA hearing on the proposed $175-million One Canal project on a piece of land now owned by the state.

Kevin Wiles Jr reports (and photographs) a crane collapse at Longwood Avenue and Pilgrim Road.

Crane just missed hitting 2 buildings connected to the Joslin Diabetes Clinic.

No injuries, he reports.

The BRA is hiring an Innovation District manager, the description for which sounds like the description for the people who run the city's Main Street programs in older 'hoods, only more innovationier - the successful candidate will attempt to recruit high-tech and biotech companies, instead of hardware stores and restaurants.

The T just can't catch a break. The Globe reports a study due out today will say that those 15 straight months of increasing ridership are putting the local subways near a breaking point - where it will soon have more riders than it can handle, especially when coupled with new riders from massive new developments built near or atop subway stations.

[W]ithout investment in more subway cars, better power and signal systems, and other tools to relieve MBTA crowding, scattered congestion will become widespread, with riders at "hot spots" unable to board because cars are too full, and with backups and bottlenecks causing delays systemwide ...

New memo straight from the top says construction on the Harvard science complex could resume in 2014, starting with a 500,000 to 600,000-square foot Health and Life Science Center.

Via Allston Brighton Community Blog.

The Globe reports the BRA wants to give State Street an $11.5-million tax break to move into the Innovation District (so there must be innovative new ways to service the financial needs of the bank's rich clients, no?). It would be spread out over several years, the city would make a boatload of taxes on the building and, besides, the CEO made $16 million in salary and other compensation last year.

The Herald reports Millennium Partners is doubling down on the original Vornado project with a building that would be taller and bigger.

New Balance will pay to build and maintain a Worcester Line stop off Everett Street as part of a deal with the state Department of Transportation.

New Balance is planning a $500-million development off Guest Street that will include offices, a hotel, a sports complex and stores.

The stop will be called New Brighton Landing. A construction date has yet to be set. Brighton and Allston both once had train stops, both lost service decades ago.

Suffolk Downs has put up renderings and justifications for its proposed $1-billion resort hotel which, to the untrained eye, looks like something you'd expect to see at the airport, rather than as a destination.

Looks like the track and Mayor Menino will be fighting a proposal for Milford for the one eastern-Massachusetts gambling license. If successful, Suffolk Downs wants to install 4,000 to 5,000 slot machines, 200 table games and a poker room, along with "six fine dining concepts," food for those with less refined tastes (a buffet and food court) and 300 hotel rooms.

Promotional video - watch past the intro to be reassured that no, they're not planning to put it in Copley Square:

The Boston Business Journal reports Don Chiofaro has finally figured out how to get things done in Boston, after waking up to a horse's head in his bed a little chat with Godmayor consigliere Peter Meade: The BRA will actually work with him to replace the Aquarium garage with something a little taller, as long as he stops doing stuff like going on Greater Boston to bitch about Hizzona.

Emmanuel College got a green light from the city this week to finish plans for a 17-story dorm on Brookline Avenue and to lease part of its campus to Brigham and Women's for a new research building on Avenue Louis Pasteur.

In a vote earlier this week, the BRA approved the college's "institutional master plan," which calls for replacing the existing four-story Julie Hall with a high rise that will include dorm rooms for 720 students (500 more than the current building) as well as classroom and dining space. The college also wants to build an underground garage, which will allow for the replacement of current parking-lot spaces with landscaping.

The specific building project still needs to go through the BRA's public-hearing process, as does another proposal to add five stories to the college library.

The college also plans to lease part of its campus along Avenue Louis Pasteur to Brigham and Women's, which plans to use the land to build a 360,000-square foot research facility sometime over the next six to eight years. In 2000, the college leased another parcel on the street to Merck.

Karen Cord Taylor writes the city needs to do more to stop us from becoming an overgrown retirement community, starting with requiring developers to build more units with three bedrooms in their downtown projects and making BPS build schools downtown - presumably on the theory that the young'uns now fleeing Boston couldn't possibly want to live in the outer neighborhoods.

Karen Cord Taylor considers competing proposals for Parcel 9, next to Haymarket, which include a museum about Boston, a bunch of apartments and a hotel.

The Tech reports on MIT's latest plans for the area around its campus, from extending the Infinite Corridor to building a new residential tower on Sidney Street. Also in the works: A "river walk" from Kendall Square to the Charles.