BRA

Anthony's Pier 4 one step closer to disappearing

adamg — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:27:20 +0000

The BRA last night gave final approval to plans for the first of three new developments on the pier, a 383-unit apartment building, the Boston Business Journal reports.

The BRA has more details on the project.

BRA approves 47-story Copley Place tower

adamg — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:22:11 +0000

The Herald reports on last night's BRA meeting on a developer's plan to build a tower with 318 condos and new retail space above the existing Neiman Marcus.

Zoning commission goes with scientists over city councilor; approves urban farm zone

adamg — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:20:48 +0000

Longtime urban farmer Sonny Washington supported proposal.

The Boston Zoning Commission this morning unanimously approved a zoning change to turn two vacant city-owned lots in Dorchester into urban farms.

The commission approved a BRA "urban agriculture overlay district" for lots on Glenway and Tucker streets.

Victory Programs' ReVision Urban Farm will create a farm on a vacant city lot at 23-29 Tucker St., while City Growers will build a farm at 131 Glenway St.

Chinatown block demolished for Southeast Expressway in early 1960s to be developed again

adamg — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:32:47 +0000

Parcel 24. Graphic from Asian Community Development Corp.

City and state officials gather Monday morning to announce financial help for a planned development that would restore housing to a block demolished for a support structure for I-93 nearly five decades agao.

Up to $125 million in potential development near Dudley Square

adamg — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:16:25 +0000

The Boston Redevelopment Authority reports it's received four proposals for two vacant parcels near Dudley Square, including a $125-million project that would include 144 apartments as well as commercial and retail space.

The BRA says its staff will review the four proposals, then hold public meetings to discuss them. No dates were announced.

Finally: BRA lets JP be JP

adamg — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:50:33 +0000

The Jamaica Plain Gazette gives huzzahs to the BRA for its maps based on the 2010 census, which, among other things, show District E-13 as actually being in JP and Mission Church as actually not being in JP.

BRA approves new recreational facility for Jackson Square

adamg — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:26:02 +0000

The Boston Redevelopment Authority reports it's given its nod to a $16-million facility that will feature a skating rink in the winter and an indoor turf yard the rest of the year.

The Columbus Avenue facility is part of the Jackson Commons project, which also calls for 438 new housing units - 291 designated as "affordable" - and community facilities, along with new retail and office space on 11.2 acres along Columbus Avenue.

Judge tosses state approval of restaurant at the end of Long Wharf

adamg — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 22:05:11 +0000

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports a Suffolk Superior Court judge has overturned the state's permit for turning the shelter at the end of Long Wharf into a seafood restaurant.

The state Department of Environmental Protection, which has oversight because of the location on the waterfront, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which owns the shelter, want to lease it to restaurant operator Michael Conlon. A group of ten North End residents, however, sued. The next step for DEP and the BRA would be an appeal to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Given how long appeals can take, Conlon might also have to convince the Boston Licensing Board they should continue to let him hold onto a liquor license he isn't actually using.

BRA: New York firm playing No. 6 to City Hall's No. 2 over Faneuil Hall

adamg — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 04:35:20 +0000

The city, which actually owns Faneuil Hall Marketplace, has blocked plans by its current bankrupt manager to sell management rights to a New York firm, the Herald reports. The BRA claims it wants information on how the new operator would actually manage the marketplace and bring back the local stores that once filled it, but that the company refuses to dish.

Negotiations have not gone well:

Proposed Long Wharf restaurant gets 60-day reprieve

adamg — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:29:32 +0000

The Boston Licensing Board voted today to give restaurateur Michael Conlon at least two more months to actually start using the liquor license he was granted in 2007 for a restaurant at the end of Long Wharf that has yet to open.

New BRA director: Boston in better shape than other cities

adamg — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:35:07 +0000

WBUR interviews Peter Meade.

Two non-profits take crack at reusing Roslindale Square's decaying brick behemoth

lex.galloway — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:13:47 +0000

Two non-profit groups are the latest to take a whack at finding uses for the long dormant, increasingly decaying Roslindale Square substation, which lost its purpose decades ago when trolleys stopped running down Washington Street.

A census map of your very own

adamg — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:12:10 +0000

E-mail the Boston Redevelopment Authority with a list of streets bordering a particular part of Boston and they promise to write back with detailed census data for that area.

Wouldn't it be funny if everybody in Boston made a request? No? In any case, the BRA seems to have made the offer because we here at the Universal Hub mini-mapparium are not the only ones who can't agree on where neighborhood lines are and maybe, just maybe, BRA staffers are already being inundated with census-related inquiries and just want to get it over with already.

Work could begin this spring to turn Downtown Crossing parking lot into apartments, condos

adamg — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:59:13 +0000

Proposed Hayward Place. Rendering from BRA.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority reports Millennium Partners have filed new plans for a 15-story residential building on what is now a parking lot across from the Ritz, which they also built.

Hayward Place will mean 265 new residential units, along with first-floor retail space. It's on the parcel bordered by Washington Street, Avenue de Lafayette, Harrison Avenue and Hayward Place, which now consists of a parking lot, an abandoned Orange Line entrance and that weird set of glass panels on beams.

The developers' original plans, submitted in 2006 before the condo market collapsed, called for 225 "loft style" condos.

Apartment construction picking up in Boston

adamg — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:33:29 +0000

Last week, the Boston Business Journal reported construction on more than 2,000 apartments is expected to begin by the spring. This week, the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved a $65-million project to convert the old Boston Renaissance Charter School at 100 Arlington St. into apartments (along with a $10-million senior apartment complex in Roxbury and a $45-million hotel on Congress Street in Fort Point Channel).