Begin forwarded message:

Folks:

At last Thursday¹s Porter Square Neighborhood Association meeting, Stone River Properties (property manager)/Urban Spaces LLC (property developer) gave a presentation on their plans to demolish the existing ³Bob Slate² store and replace it with a 20 unit project. They didn¹t have handouts and don¹t yet have a website for the project so my notes may have a few errors but I think I¹ve got the meat of the proposal correct. The stores in the current building will all vacate the property (the owners hope as late as possible) and Miso, which had had a couple more years on its lease, is expecting to leave, I believe, in September. The proponents will need a Special Permit from the Planning Board simply because of the project¹s size but otherwise it appears to be in conformity with all relevant zoning setbacks, parking regulations and so forth. They hope to be in front of the Planning Board sometime in September, start the project around next April and finish 11-12 months later. The project will be four stories and a basement on Mass Ave, ground floor parking with two floors of units above that in the middle, and then an attached single family house of about 1800 SF with a detached garage. There will be a variety of balconies/decks on the front and rear of the building, façade indents and a variety of glass, brick and stone-type surface materials. While the 19 condos in the main building will be rental condos, the proponents may seek a subdivision variance to break off the single family house in the back and sell it. The existing ground floor retail spaces along Mass Ave will come back as retail (and will be truly ground floor which will improve access to them), with a small lobby and elevator for access to the basement and upper floors. There will be 20 parking spaces with exit and entry to the Œcourtyard¹ parking area via Allen Street, about 60 feet in from Mass Ave. It wasn¹t entirely clear how people would get to the driveway, most likely by driving down Allen from Orchard, but it¹s possible all or part of one-way Allen Street could be made two way. The units will mostly be a mix of one bedroom (about 750 square feet) and two bedroom (from 950-1150 square feet) with the single family being three bedrooms. It is not yet clear whether they will include the cost of parking spots in the rent or charge extra for it. In other properties they own, Stone River says that it has found parking space utilization to be less than 50%, though it¹s possible folks own cars and park them on local streets rather than rent parking spots.

Coincidentally, Thursday night was the last night that the Kaya Restaurant was going to be open. The proponents of that project hope to have demo start around the beginning of September.

Also, as you probably have seen, the Lesley/AIB church project is moving along. You can check out their weekly project updates here: http://www.lesley.edu/artsconstruction/ and you can sign up for email updates at: construction@lesley.edu <mailto:construction@lesley.edu?subject=Arts%20Center%20Construction%20Questio n> . They had been hoping to move the church in September, but I¹m not sure exactly when. If you want to watch that event, email construction@lesley.edu <mailto:construction@lesley.edu?subject=Arts%20Center%20Construction%20Questio n> and ask them to let you know when it¹ll be moved.

Thanks a lot.

Craig Kelley