In Jamaica Plain – one of the hottest apartment rental submarkets in the entire city of Boston – the MBTA is trying to sell a prime parcel of land for residential development, just south of the Forest Hills Orange Line T stop that provides direct access to downtown.
But no one is buying.
The cash-strapped transit agency has attempted to sell the 2.8-acre Parcel U just south of Ukraine Way, along Hyde Park Avenue, about four times in the last four years. But in that time, no developer has really even so much as nibbled. And so the MBTA’s price tag for the land has dropped to $995,000, from more than $1.55 million.
The vacant parcel in question sits on a portion of land created after the state decided to drop the formerly elevated Orange Line train underground to build the Southwest Corridor parkway.
The book on this parcel reads much differently from the one on two other MBTA parcels just steps away on Washington Street. There, construction is already well underway on two new, mixed-use commercial properties totaling 44,000 square feet at 3840 and 3815 Washington St. The developer, Jamaica Plain’s own WCI Realty, is planning to move its offices to the smaller of the two buildings upon completion.
But that still leaves room for a new residential development in the area, less than a five-minute walk to the train. So why hasn’t anyone gotten on board yet?
‘Living With Transients’
Until now, interested developers’ hands would have been tied before even getting started on a project at Parcel U, according to MBTA Assistant General Manager of Development Mark Boyle.
The land for sale is part of the Forest Hills Improvement Initiative, created by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), which guides new construction in the city. The initiative identifies locations for development in the Forest Hills area of Jamaica Plain and specifies what City Hall envisions for those locations.
In the uses and guidelines developed for Parcel U, the BRA created a potential buildout scheme including 120 residential units focusing on “family housing,” with 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail for a grocer, hardware store or café. The city wants 30,000 square feet, or about a quarter of the site, to be open space. Buildings should be three or four stories tall and be “compatible” with residential properties across Hyde Park Avenue.
All of that would require a developer to go through a re-zoning process with City Hall and obtain approvals from the BRA. In the past, developers were worried that they could purchase the land, but end up hard-pressed to get those zoning and other approvals.
Recently, the MBTA realized that developers need a bit of cushion to get all that done. To mitigate that risk, the agency is now allowing up to 18 months to secure any and all permits necessary to purchase the property and build the project, Boyle said. The lower price should also help, he added.
At the nearby Dogwood Café across from the Forest Hills station, a patron who would only identify himself as Kevin was paying his bar tab while describing what he thinks the neighborhood needs.
“There are always more people moving into the area, so there’s always a need for more housing,” he said, adding that he lives in the Forest Hills area. “But what we really need is a supermarket. And we need more opportunities for homeownership. Residential is fine as long as it’s not just apartments. With apartments you just end up living with the transients.”
