By Greg Ryan - A pair of development firms wants to build 111 apartments on Park Drive off The Fens, “a significant portion of which will be rent-restricted units,” according to a recent filing with the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
Boston-based Transom Real Estate LLC and Cohasset-based Harbor Run Development filed a letter of intent last week to construct two seven-story residential buildings at 165 Park Drive, on a 1.4-acre site next to Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral.
The developers said in the filing they are “exploring innovative partnership approaches that could provide more affordable units than would otherwise be feasible, with the goal of creating a mixed-income project that will add significant new residential opportunities in the Fenway for a variety of income levels.”
Transom has several projects underway in Boston with residential components. They include 282 Bremen St. in East Boston, a 139-unit project with 18 income-restricted units and another six to be marketed to holders of housing-choice vouchers. The BPDA initially approved the project in 2020 and re-approved it last year after the developer made some small changes.
Transom principal Peter Spellios is one of the members of a committee advising Mayor Michelle Wu on potential changes to the city’s inclusionary development policy, or IDP. As it stands, the IDP calls for 13% of the units in a new residential project to be income-restricted, though Wu is interested in increasing that threshold to 20% or more.
At another BPDA-approved Transom project, on West Second Street in South Boston, 13% of the units are set to be income-restricted under the IDP.
As part of the 165 Park Drive project, the developers plan to assist the Holy Trinity cathedral with repairs and landscaping, the filing said. The project would include up to a total of four parking spaces for residents.