Related Beal’s 311,000-square-foot proposed redevelopment of Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology’s campus in Boston’s South End neighborhood includes a senior care facility, up to 76,000 square feet of offices and subsidized ground-floor cultural space for the neighborhood’s arts and nonprofit community.
The Boston-based developer is seeking approval from the Boston Planning and Development Agency under a planned development area review, which would eliminate the need for zoning variances for height and density on the 1.2-acre site. The 112-year-old tech institute is planning to relocate to 1011 Harrison Ave. in Nubian Square and has an agreement to sell the South End campus to Related Beal, which plans to phase construction to allow the institute to operate until the move.
The project includes construction of a 13-story, 241-bed senior care facility and renovation of the Appleton building into ground-floor nonprofit space and income-restricted housing. The Franklin Union building would be converted into 76,000 square feet of commercial space, likely in the form of offices, developers said in a project notification form. Each of the three project components could be built by individual developers.
The 4,550-square-foot affordable nonprofit space in the Appleton building will include a multipurpose area for meetings, events, gallery shows, rehearsals and concerts, opening onto a plaza for outdoor programming.
Related Beal estimates the project could kick off as soon as early 2022 and take 30 months to complete.