Two Buildings Planned for Charlestown

Charlestown Patriot Bridge
January 31, 2009
by Dan Murphy

A pair of high-rise buildings planned for Rutherford Avenue has raised many questions regarding future development in the neighborhood and how the project has changed since it was first proposed 20 years ago.

At a Charlestown Neighborhood Council Development Committee meeting last Thursday, CNC representatives and a small number of concerned residents and abutters discussed Bridgeview Lofts, a $70 million residential development planned for the area north of the Bunker Hill Community College Athletic fields.

The project would consist of two buildings — one 20 stories and 250 feet in height, the other 14 stories and 181 feet tall. The development’s 180 one- and two-bedroom loft-style units, described as affordably priced and with little finish work (e.g. granite countertops), could be marketed as rentals or condos, depending on the market. A three-level garage would also provide 280 on-site parking spaces at grade and in two underground levels, and retail space would likely be available on the first level. The project could be completed in three years, with proper funding in place, according to the developers.

The developers are Byron Gilchrest, president of Gilchrest Associates, Inc. of Boston, and Jack Millerick, executive director of the Life Focus Center, Inc. (The Life Focus Center is a City Square-based non-profit that assists the mentally handicapped and provides other social services). Jack French, president of Monument Square’s Neshamkin French Architects, Inc., is designing the project.

Development Committee co-chair Judy Brennan questioned the new designation of the site as a for-profit residential complex, since the Boston Redevelopment Authority granted development rights of the parcel to the Life Focus Center in 1988 for the sum of $1. Under this agreement, the parcel was designated for a new Life Focus Center facility.

Millerick said the Life Focus Center originally hoped to build a new facility at the site, but a sluggish economy made this plan unfeasible at the time. The latest and third proposal that now comes before the CNC is “literally an extension” of the original plan, he said.

Earnings from the development would be used to establish an endowment for the Life Focus Center, which Millerick said was essential to the non-profit’s survival in light of recent cutbacks. The Child Focus Center, a daycare service operated by the Life Focus Center, also plan to expand from its current home at the Community College to Bridgeview Lofts, Millerick said.

In addition, Millerick said the developers would be required to renegotiate the terms of its deal with the BRA and would likely pay more for the parcel rights, given the different nature of the new proposal.

The project’s partnership between a non-profit and a private developer still presented a quandary for some: As Dave Whelan of the CNC said, “You might want to vote for the non-profit, but not for the development.”

Brennan described the height of Bridgeview Lofts as “the other elephant in the room,” pointing out that one of the buildings, at 250 feet, would surpass the 221-foot Bunker Hill Monument as the tallest building in Charlestown.

French countered that the site of the development would be located outside the center of town.

This came of little consolation to the abutting homeowners in attendance, 17 of whom signed a petition against the project. While the name “Bridgeview Lofts” implies that each unit would offer a view of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge and downtown Boston, residents of Essex and Lyndeboro streets fear they will find themselves living in its shadow.

“At the end of my day, I sit down and watch the sun set,” Essex Street resident Patricia Kelly said. “Please don’t take that away from me.”

Others wondered what kind of precedent the height of Bridgeview Lofts would set for future development along Rutherford Avenue and in Sullivan Square.

“Height is a major issue for a lot of people today,” CNC Chairman Tom Cunha said to the developers. “You have an opportunity to decide what gets built on the rest of Sullivan Square

Some suggested future development should be postponed until the implementation of the city’s Rutherford Avenue Corridor Study, which aims to facilitate traffic flow in the area by reconfiguring the roadway.

“Let’s slow development down until the traffic situation on Rutherford Avenue can be addressed,” said Precinct 7 CNC representative Mike Charbonnier during a phone interview after the meeting, “That’s what I’ve been hearing from my constituents for over a year.”

Gilchrest said the project wasn’t being planned in conjunction with the traffic study or other development planned for the neighborhood.

“If you wait for something to get done, nothing gets done,” Gilchrest said. “We could be out here six years from now waiting for the planning to be done.”
For the time being, Bill Lamb, chairman of the Charlestown Preservation Society Design Review Committee, urged the Neighborhood Council to put a moratorium on Bridgeview Lofts until the completion of the traffic study, which he said would “set guidelines for the area to insure coherent, attractive, safe and economically feasible construction.”

Lamb said, “If Bridgeview is approved, we’re putting action before thinking.”
The Neighborhood Council voted six to three in favor of a motion from Cunha stating that the developers would take part in ongoing meetings and revise its proposal based on input from the community and the CNC. The motion also requests that BRA representatives participate in future meetings.

A second motion, put forward by Bill Galvin of the CNC, called for a moratorium on all future development in the vicinity of Rutherford Avenue and Sullivan Square for one year or until the time that the traffic study is completed. Six voted in favor of this motion, while three abstained.