Image courtesy Monte French Design Studio
Developers are expanding plans to convert a former Nubian Square bakery into a coliving community, with the latest version calling for 94 units and projected rents up to 60 percent below those charged for conventional apartments in Boston.
Boston Real Estate Collaborative LLC and Grove Hall Neighborhood Development Corp. propose partial demolition and expansion of 1127 Harrison Ave. to make way for a coliving project with 17,000 square feet of commercial space.
Developers previously received approval for a smaller project including 21 coliving units on the 0.47-acre site, before filing plans for the expansion project last week.
The existing building has been occupied by artist and retail space and has a history of deferred maintenance and complaints as a home to illegal parties, developers said in a filing with the Boston Planning & Development Agency. Since acquiring the property in January 2019, BREC has removed problem tenants, and the building is currently half-occupied by commercial tenants.
Developers are committed to offering the renovated retail space to existing tenants, and will give preference to local minority-owned small businesses for the remaining space at base rents that match those paid by existing tenants.
To maximize living space, residential units would include features such as elevated storage accessible by ladders. The coliving units would be augmented by 4,500 of shared amenity spaces, including commercial-grade kitchens, dining areas, lounges, screening rooms, gyms and a roof deck.
“The result is units that ‘live’ much larger than their square footage would indicate, at a higher level of quality than what is possible under a standard-size rental apartment scenario,” the application states.
The project would include 12 on-site affordable units restricted for households earning 70 percent or less of the area median income.
The designs acknowledge development plans for the neighboring city-owned Blair Lot by positioning the retail space to face the 2-acre parcel. In December, the BPDA named Nubian Ascend Partners as the designated developer of the city-owned property. The developers propose 329,000 square feet of commercial and cultural space, including offices, an artisan marketplace, theater, food hall and 15 artist live-work units.
