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Residential buildings could replace East Boston casket factory destroyed in a fire

The family that long built caskets on Bennington Street in East Boston has teamed up with a downtown developer on a plan for a two-building residential complex where their factory used to be.

In a letter of intent filed with the BPDA, a lawyer for the Tobia family and developer Redgate said they will soon file a detailed plan to build 221 residential units in two six-story buildings at 1141 Bennington St., where the New England Casket Co. factory burned to the ground in a 9-alarm fire on March 15, 2019.

The building, on what is now an empty 1.6-acre lot, was originally built as a carhouse for the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad, whose tracks were eventually taken over by the Boston Elevated Railway and turned into what is now the Blue Line. During the fire, Blue Line service was halted to give firefighters better access to the building.

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Comments

Sad to say but it is a cold hard truth that Covid and Opioid Epidemic made casket factories and funeral home owners' comfortable retiremement a reality . Add selling property to drooling developers. Equals very comfortable.

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And “previously developed”.

This was a failed development site which now has a new developer.

Redgate, I think, could be wrong, they built 500 Ocean in Revere.

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Developers are also owners of the garbage company that picks up all the daily garbage throughout Boston

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This is being developed by casket company owners and RedGate who is only interested in high density proposals, not Capitol Waste owners also only interested in density.

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has had thousands of residential units built recently, and has thousands more in the pipeline (including Suffolk Downs). But what has not been built in East Boston? A new public school. The last public school, non-charter, was constructed in the 1970s; most of the school buildings are from the early 20th Century. Families and children are being shortchanged, and our government is letting us down. The demand for a trade school serving the area is huge, but crickets. The ancient schools may be charming to look at from the outside, but they are a disgrace when compared to the facilities in surrounding cities and towns.

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A trade school is promised at Suffolk Downs. But density at this site is a poorly planned development, a) because it’s another rob of our commercial space, b) it’s on top of the rails, c) more importantly proposed in a flood zone, d) a huge impact upon a natural resource that is an Area of Critical Environmental Concern and designated an Important Bird Area known as Belle Isle Marsh, e) hovers on top of a critical piece of our transportation infrastructure at the MBTA car barn, and total lack of parking for this structure because they can claim transit oriented development (when the T will not be useable given 10,000 units proposed for SD—-it defies logic.

These are some reasons this high impact proposal is a poor excuse for high density development.

How does a city government allow an abuse of zoning?

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With all due respect to the long time residents of East Boston, building a trade school would be incredibly short-sighted. That neighborhood is changing, rapidly. Those thousands upon thousands of new residential units are luxury condos. The demographics are quickly changing. While it has long been a blue-collar neighborhood, it is quickly becoming a wealthy, white collar neighborhood. While the Massachusetts, like the rest of the US, should re-examine the unfortunate lack of trade schools, that neighborhood will not have much of a demand for such schools within 10 years - and probably sooner.

Moreover, the "new" residents of East Boston, by and large, are childless. The existing properties should be upgraded and renovated, but the demand for schools in that area will be dropping in future years from the recent historical demand.

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