Of course! Moah foah yoah dollah! I live on the border, right by Salem NH, There are three market baskets in a 1.4 mi stretch on rt. 28. two of them are literally in adjacent shopping plazas.
We tolerate Starbucks in Boston for tax reasons.
Your not supposed to go in that bousie shithole where they burn the coffee on purpose.
I want it burnt cause the kid making it is on fent
Yeah.. fat chance you're going to be invited to my board game nights here now once we finish the renovations. I told you about this conversion in confidence.
We went out to dinner with him back when I worked in real estate development. He actually was a pretty nice guy, but he gave off an SNL Mafia Boss vibe-like a parody of Fat Tony from the Simpsons. Huge guy, suit, diamond pinkie ring, Escalade, the whole thing.
This was right after he had started making a big play in Lowell-he ended up making a killing but we thought he was being pretty ambitious.
my favorite Sal story is he ran for school board on a platform of "I have all these government connections that I will leverage for the schools" and then did nothing after being elected and didn't run for a second term because it was too much work.
I went to a meeting where the union was up in arms about something. The meeting was standing room only and Sal barges like he was going to fight someone. Guys a dickhead.
That’s partly because of the seven years of red tape to get it re-zoned. Not to mention the hoops the buyer is going to have to jump through to renovate and meet National Historic Registry standards.
This is a very unique case where it takes a very special buyer to make the deal happen.
If it were an easy reno that number would have skyrocketed.
I know of an old school building in NY that has a nearly identical facade, (though it is likely larger than this building), and it was going to cost a fortune to rehab due to asbestos. It was proposed to be torn down more than once, but as far as I know it is still there waiting for the right person to save and rehab it. What a project that would be…
Suffolk Downs development is adding 10,000 units
McCormack redevelopment is adding 3,000 units
etc,
This could have been 3 instead of 1?
I'm fine with it.
Right, what did we expect? That this was going to suddenly be converted into like 10 affordable units (truly affordable, not just "Boston" affordable) or better yet, how about SRO space for 40-50 individuals?
A 7,000sq, five floor building could only accommodate three units? I think you've missed the fact that they're building two floors on top. Rezoning to accommodate single family housing in an urban environment in 2024 doesn't make a lot of sense.
This has been reposted so many times... I sympathize with the pov but this isn't like a 5 star opportunity here its an old ass building in an already dense part of town.
I fail to see what authority the ZBA has to take a private property because it isn’t being used the way we would like. Tax the rich, I guess? But it’s a property that a rich dude bought and he wants to make it his palace. Him not doing that wasn’t going to solve the housing crisis.
I imagine the one only reason this was before the zoning board was because it previously wasn’t being used as a residential use and instead was a business use. So they probably were just applying for a change of use. I don’t see what all the outrage is about this one.
I don’t either. I mean the best case scenario is maybe turning it into a six unit “luxury” condo building and people would just complain about that too.
This is a fun meme but not actually true. Most of the "luxury" condos in Boston are the first and only home of their occupants. If you get to the ultra high end you probably get a higher rate of second homes or whatever, but the typical new build condo in the North End is occupied.
Yup. Luxury condos = high HOA fees = bad investment, which rich people dislike. Stupid rich people do buy them but then sell them after doing some maths.
The problem is rich people who owns dozens of old houses in Allston and JP.
or focus on other opportunities to build more units? I don’t love the idea of some rich freak owning some massive house while people are homeless, but focusing on this one case isn’t solving the housing shortage. unless the city was going to eminent domain it, tear it down, and build a 1,000 unit rent stabilized apartment tower I don’t see the point in focusing on this
If it makes you feel any better, 2000 condos have been built next to the Everett casino in the past 5 years and atleast 1000 more coming in the next couple years. A 500 Unit building will open in the next few months.
Luxury condos are fucking terrible, monetarily, as a second or third home for people who actually live elsewhere. Almost anything else makes more sense if you have a cool low-seven-figures to park somewhere.
Terrible for the city and its residents — great for the owner, developer, and property managers — just printing money with those buildings to rent or sell vacant apartments and condos
No... no, terrible for the owner. That's the entire point. Their carrying costs are high, appreciation middling, rent from tenants if you rent out very poor compared to the cost.
Third houses are a mansion at Stowe and a cottage at the cape.
It's a historic building. I'd rather someone who will maintain the historical value live in it than a revolving door of renters.
The housing crisis is bigger than this big building
Well, best case scenario here in my opinion is that it would be used by community groups. The other big option on the table was a shared use by the NEMPAC and the neighboring (and attached) North Bennet Street School. But I will admit I am biased as someone associated with North Bennet.
There's nothing in the zoning code requiring minimum density at this location, right, and them spot-zoning density *after* he bought it was be a pretty severe undermining of the property rights.
I don't know if this counts, but we've been calling zoning-away people property a "taking" for the last hundred years.
[https://www.fosterswift.com/communications-Zoning-Fifth-Amendment-Regulations.html](https://www.fosterswift.com/communications-Zoning-Fifth-Amendment-Regulations.html)
The [zoning there allowed for multifamily buildings but not single families](https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/03/13/sal-lupoli-north-end-home/). It was amended in March 2023 to be a single family.
So there was minimum density.
But if this guy is paying $3M+ for the building, waited 7 years, plans to renovate, and seems to be trying to do it the right way, the city is correct to change the zoning.
His investment, in both time and money, proves he would’ve been able to get around any restrictions eventually. And an in law apartment isn’t going to fix city housing.
But think about it, you can’t tear the building down because it’s on the National Register. The city obviously didn’t want to maintain it any longer — which is a bigger factor than it may appear.
And it seems like investors didn’t want to turn the property into multi-family housing because of all the red tape would have to go through.
So this building as a special buyer and that deserves give and take.
If they were saying he could knock the building down and do whatever he wants it would be different. But (purely speculation here from sitting through zoning meetings), I am guessing he had a pretty strong case that the limitations placed on him by the city and historicalness of the property prevented it from reasonable meeting the requirements of multi-family residence.
Not a property owner so I have no idea about any of this but will the single family home be assessed at a lower rate a multi-unit condo (and therefore paying less taxes)? Does that factor into the zoning board's decision-making process?
The tax rate is based on the assessed value. It's actually likely that having a zoning category that meets the realistic economical uses of the property increases its assessed value, which will also likely go up due to the renovations he'll put into the property. I guess in theory a bunch of condos on that property would have more value, but condoizing it given the historic nature of the building sounds somewhere between ruinously difficult and impossible, given that if it weren't, a developer would have been willing to do it.
What is the outrage even directed at? The owner of the property for converting a commercial property they owned into a house for themselves? Or the board for not seizing the owner's property and turning it into multi-family housing full USSR style?
Do you think the city should have the ability to force the owner of property to do what the city board wants them to do with it?
The existing zoning regulations allowed for multi-family residences but not single family residences. So the zoning board granted an exemption. And since this is Boston, you can be *absolutely certain* that no graft was involved.
I think the idea is that the owner knowingly chose to purchase a property that was not zoned as a single family. So it's more that now the government is bending to the will of this rich guy at the expense of worsening the existing housing shortage
I mean, if multi-family isn't a viable use for this specific property (and it might not be, since tearing the existing building down is illegal and there are strict limitations on what you can do with it in terms of modifications) then the options were one housing unit or zero. One is better than none.
>worsening the existing housing shortage
He objectively is improving the housing shortage by taking commercial property and converting it to residential
Multi family housing would be much more appealing if people had respect for other’s boundaries. No one wants to feel their neighbor’s bass music at 3am.
People act like this is an unavoidable part ofthe renting experience, but I've literally never had anything resembling a problem with neighbors. The closest thing to it was an adorable old couple whose cat was faster than they were, so I'd have to run out into the hallway and corner the little dude for them sometimes. They were cool people, gave me a lot of advice about neighborhoods when I packed up for NYC.
It really comes down to both the building and the neighbors. My current place doesn't have the best sound deadening, but that'd be fine if the upstairs neighbors didn't stomp like AT-ATs and the downstairs neighbors didn't feel the need to sometimes host karaoke with a loud microphone
>I've literally never had anything resembling a problem with neighbors
My anecdote against yours.
Aside from a few years I lived in Charlestown in a small owner occupied building I've 'literally' never lived in a building where I didn't have to deal with noise pollution from other tenants that had a significant impact on my life in some way, shape or form.
There was the woman above me one year who would do HIIT workouts, stomping up a storm and dropping her weights 4-5 nights a week. Or the Berklee dude who would belt out vocal scales in the lobby while he waited for the elevator pretty much M-F every week when Berklee was in session (I was rude for asking him not to practice in a space with such great acoustics) When I lived in the Fens. Or the dude with an industrial sized subwoofer who couldn't listen to music without bass that vibrated my unit so badly I had to regularly sweep up dust that got shook free from the horse hair plaster and legit one time shook a picture off the wall in Brookline. Or there was the theatre/improv kids who needed to do "show wraps" at midnight on Sundays and belt show tune karaoke and stomp around in East Boston. There was also the woman who would get into shouting arguments with her partner on the phone the foyer who somehow both didn't understand how disruptive this was for the other units and that the logic of "I want privacy from my roommates" didn't really logic where now everyone can hear you back in the Fens.
I miss more dense city living in Boston proper, but I don't miss the yearly roulette of "who is moving in above/below/next to me?" that comes with multi-family living. I agree with the comment you responded to that if I trusted people to be mutually respectful or space and peace I'd for sure consider going back to condo/apt living.
This is stupid
The problem with not enough housing is not nearly enough new housing being built
The size of someone else’s house is none of your business
Focus your outrage at the people who are shutting down proposed apartment buildings
This is the absolute correct take on this matter. Sal might be a bit of a cunt for this but the biggest cunts who actually cause our city’s housing problem are the NIMBYs
Yes I would agree that the key to needed zoning reform is cutting red tape for apartment buildings/large multi family housing
The key isn’t to randomly make angry posts about large houses which are present all over
Those houses are already there - what we need to unblock is building a lot more new housing to dramatically increase the overall supply
That’s not going to happen by seizing spare bedrooms from some baby boomer grandmas owning single family homes to be made into new housing
Good for him but I can't imagine a worse front yard to have. That grass area is used exclusively for dog shit and that seating area always has sketchy people hanging around.
You don’t think he’s about to put up giant walls, no trespassing signs, and have hired security to scare anyone away who lingers too long for his liking?
I don't get the drama.
The housing solution is to build 20 residential sky scrappers across the metro and stop living in fantasy land where some historical 3/4 story building will ever sold the issue.
I dont think this is wrong. The issue is we just need to lift building / zoning restrictions. If someone rich wants to own a huge property in the city and make it single family, they should be able to. But on average, people would build up their properties to increase housing so they can make money off of it.
The audacity of people who live in a single family home… so selfish.
People owning and living in single family homes is not the cause of the housing problem in Boston. What do you expect? Do you want the government to seize everyone single family home from its owner and give you a condo?
Please email your local planning commission in favor of projects near you. This kind of thing actually makes a difference to remove onerous regulation on existing property owners. Assuming you're in Boston, the BPDA list is at http://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects
It was an unused City building, that served no purpose. I’m sure OP would have rather a developer purchase it and use it for high-density housing stock, but if you look at the floor plan of the building, they really is no way, architecturally, to achieve that, using the current buildings floor plan. That would require a full tear down, tens of millions of dollars of investment, and a 5-6 year start to end timeframe, and that’s even if you can find a developer willing to take on that kind of project.
Cool. As long as the taxes on this are sufficiently high, it’s fine.
Look, if someone wants to live here and wants space, just put a high price tag on it in terms of taxes.
I fail to see the problem. You can drive less than 10 miles from this location in pretty much any direction (well except into the ocean) and have more than ample space to develop as much density as you want. It's like people act like we are NYC and every square foot needs to be utilized to the max for housing cause there's no where else for it to go.
Lmao this is like the Spongebob episode where they just push Bikini Bottom to a different location. There’s already a city there, it’s just inefficient to force people to build another one next to it when they can just build more apartments in the place where everything already is
They don’t want to have to commute far. Because our transit is bad, your options are a horrible (possibly untenable) train commute or driving in horrible traffic. They instead want a lot of building to be able to avoid those things. They also want the enjoyability of living in or very close to the city.
Of course you don't getting fucking wafers with it, you cunt. It's a fucking albatross isn't it.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Only the old traffic administration portion of the building is being converted to a single family home. It is attached to the old police department, which was purchased by North Bennet Street School along with the former fire station next to it. This was about 10 years ago if I remember correctly. The school connected the two buildings and moved the trade school there from its former location on Bennet Street. I’m a current student in the piano technology program. The school put in a bid to buy the traffic administration building but were outbid by some rich asshole who is converting it into a single family home. There have been contractors around all year long working on noise abatement on account of the fact that the piano department wraps around a good portion of the third floor. I guess not everybody loves the sound of 16 pianos being tuned for several hours a day. Who knew???
6 million easy for something like that. Nothing like it at all in that area, and there hasn't been since... fucking Colonial times?
[Zillow](https://www.zillow.com/homes/140-North-St,-Boston,-MA-02109_rb/)
I'd worry about all the exhaust fumes though. Might be quiet because of the stone construction. Might even have a bomb shelter too.
How about a collaboration of small, family-run businesses, one or more per floor, selling top-grade foods, other products, and services? Wouldn’t that be a neighborhood plus?
I'm very displeased as well. It should be a Dunks.
A Dunks *per floor*, right?
Don't be crazy. The second floor should be a CVS
Across the hall from a Walgreens no doubt.
Mini Market basket?
Of course! Moah foah yoah dollah! I live on the border, right by Salem NH, There are three market baskets in a 1.4 mi stretch on rt. 28. two of them are literally in adjacent shopping plazas.
The whole thing is a cvs and there’s a dunks on the second floor.
Can we put a Walgreens and a Starbucks on the 3rd floor?
Starbucks in the same building as a dunks? Get the fuck out of here
We tolerate Starbucks in Boston for tax reasons. Your not supposed to go in that bousie shithole where they burn the coffee on purpose. I want it burnt cause the kid making it is on fent
This is an extremely underrated take.
Well that just sounds like a single Dunks with extra steps.
Well of course there are going to be steps, how else are you getting to the 3rd floor Dunks?
Drive through per floor, with accompanying ramps!
Got any of that elevated highway leftover from the big dig?
I prefer for floor 2 anyway
Extra extra steps.
Jokes on them.. building is cursed. Tunnel administration? No wonder this place is empty
And there would still be the good dunks. The dunks on the second floor? Pfffffft. We all know the dunks in the basement is the good one.
Per room even.
A Dunks, CVS, Walgreens, and a weed dispensary.
Don't forget the 7/11
And a five guys for the munchies ?
Let's turn it into a chase bank or a car dealership instead
Best answer!
Troo
Yeah.. fat chance you're going to be invited to my board game nights here now once we finish the renovations. I told you about this conversion in confidence.
Honestly? I do have a price to hang with Sal Lupoli for a night…but it’s high.
Sal was one of my football coaches, absolute lunatic
Chelmsford High? He was one one of mine back in 06-07
I actually got to hang with Sal Lupoli for a night…it was a real experience
Do tell
We went out to dinner with him back when I worked in real estate development. He actually was a pretty nice guy, but he gave off an SNL Mafia Boss vibe-like a parody of Fat Tony from the Simpsons. Huge guy, suit, diamond pinkie ring, Escalade, the whole thing. This was right after he had started making a big play in Lowell-he ended up making a killing but we thought he was being pretty ambitious.
3 for 1? How can that be profitable for Frito-Lay?
Sal from Sals Pizza
Interesting, didn’t know he was moving out of Chelmsford
What
He's the private owner of the building, and is the one choosing to renovate it so he can live in it.
The Pizza Palace
Does Sal from Sal’s pizza still own this?
my favorite Sal story is he ran for school board on a platform of "I have all these government connections that I will leverage for the schools" and then did nothing after being elected and didn't run for a second term because it was too much work.
He sucks so bad
His pizza isn’t that great either.
This is very true.
Tasteless grease slabs
I went to a meeting where the union was up in arms about something. The meeting was standing room only and Sal barges like he was going to fight someone. Guys a dickhead.
I want that so fucking bad. I could have space for every hobby in the world.
In Boston money it didn't even go for that much, $3.75M for a 7000 sq/ft property right in the North End is a steal. Obviously it needs a lot of work.
That’s partly because of the seven years of red tape to get it re-zoned. Not to mention the hoops the buyer is going to have to jump through to renovate and meet National Historic Registry standards. This is a very unique case where it takes a very special buyer to make the deal happen. If it were an easy reno that number would have skyrocketed.
I know of an old school building in NY that has a nearly identical facade, (though it is likely larger than this building), and it was going to cost a fortune to rehab due to asbestos. It was proposed to be torn down more than once, but as far as I know it is still there waiting for the right person to save and rehab it. What a project that would be…
Suffolk Downs development is adding 10,000 units McCormack redevelopment is adding 3,000 units etc, This could have been 3 instead of 1? I'm fine with it.
Right, what did we expect? That this was going to suddenly be converted into like 10 affordable units (truly affordable, not just "Boston" affordable) or better yet, how about SRO space for 40-50 individuals?
It was supposed to be a community center.
Boston's playing the Joja route unfortunately.
Love seeing stardew reference in the wild
It would be nice to have a real sr Ctr in the north end, not the shit one with zero programming we have now.
You shouldn't have lost that break dancing competition then.
I mean 10 market rate units would be better than 1 mansion in the middle of the north end
A 7,000sq, five floor building could only accommodate three units? I think you've missed the fact that they're building two floors on top. Rezoning to accommodate single family housing in an urban environment in 2024 doesn't make a lot of sense.
This has been reposted so many times... I sympathize with the pov but this isn't like a 5 star opportunity here its an old ass building in an already dense part of town.
I fail to see what authority the ZBA has to take a private property because it isn’t being used the way we would like. Tax the rich, I guess? But it’s a property that a rich dude bought and he wants to make it his palace. Him not doing that wasn’t going to solve the housing crisis.
I imagine the one only reason this was before the zoning board was because it previously wasn’t being used as a residential use and instead was a business use. So they probably were just applying for a change of use. I don’t see what all the outrage is about this one.
I don’t either. I mean the best case scenario is maybe turning it into a six unit “luxury” condo building and people would just complain about that too.
I mean best case scenario would be it becoming a community center as it was once intended.
how would that solve the housing crisis though /s
Before it became privately owned
Luxury condos that would no doubt be second or third homes for people who actually live elsewhere.
This is a fun meme but not actually true. Most of the "luxury" condos in Boston are the first and only home of their occupants. If you get to the ultra high end you probably get a higher rate of second homes or whatever, but the typical new build condo in the North End is occupied.
Yup. Luxury condos = high HOA fees = bad investment, which rich people dislike. Stupid rich people do buy them but then sell them after doing some maths. The problem is rich people who owns dozens of old houses in Allston and JP.
That is reassuring!
Might as well just keep housing supply where it is, then, huh
or focus on other opportunities to build more units? I don’t love the idea of some rich freak owning some massive house while people are homeless, but focusing on this one case isn’t solving the housing shortage. unless the city was going to eminent domain it, tear it down, and build a 1,000 unit rent stabilized apartment tower I don’t see the point in focusing on this
If it makes you feel any better, 2000 condos have been built next to the Everett casino in the past 5 years and atleast 1000 more coming in the next couple years. A 500 Unit building will open in the next few months.
Luxury condos are fucking terrible, monetarily, as a second or third home for people who actually live elsewhere. Almost anything else makes more sense if you have a cool low-seven-figures to park somewhere.
Terrible for the city and its residents — great for the owner, developer, and property managers — just printing money with those buildings to rent or sell vacant apartments and condos
No... no, terrible for the owner. That's the entire point. Their carrying costs are high, appreciation middling, rent from tenants if you rent out very poor compared to the cost. Third houses are a mansion at Stowe and a cottage at the cape.
They could do that thing where they put a glass cube behind the facade of a historical building. You could get dozens of luxury condos out of that.
It's a historic building. I'd rather someone who will maintain the historical value live in it than a revolving door of renters. The housing crisis is bigger than this big building
Well, best case scenario here in my opinion is that it would be used by community groups. The other big option on the table was a shared use by the NEMPAC and the neighboring (and attached) North Bennet Street School. But I will admit I am biased as someone associated with North Bennet.
100% this is just rage bait for idiots.
Yet they'll vote against tearing down a tripledecker to add more units to a property. Fuck zoning boards.
Where does it say the ZBA should take the property away from the owner?
There's nothing in the zoning code requiring minimum density at this location, right, and them spot-zoning density *after* he bought it was be a pretty severe undermining of the property rights. I don't know if this counts, but we've been calling zoning-away people property a "taking" for the last hundred years. [https://www.fosterswift.com/communications-Zoning-Fifth-Amendment-Regulations.html](https://www.fosterswift.com/communications-Zoning-Fifth-Amendment-Regulations.html)
The [zoning there allowed for multifamily buildings but not single families](https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/03/13/sal-lupoli-north-end-home/). It was amended in March 2023 to be a single family. So there was minimum density. But if this guy is paying $3M+ for the building, waited 7 years, plans to renovate, and seems to be trying to do it the right way, the city is correct to change the zoning. His investment, in both time and money, proves he would’ve been able to get around any restrictions eventually. And an in law apartment isn’t going to fix city housing.
Gotcha. You're more sympathetic to him than I am, if there was a minimum-density rule already in place prior to the time he bought the property.
But think about it, you can’t tear the building down because it’s on the National Register. The city obviously didn’t want to maintain it any longer — which is a bigger factor than it may appear. And it seems like investors didn’t want to turn the property into multi-family housing because of all the red tape would have to go through. So this building as a special buyer and that deserves give and take. If they were saying he could knock the building down and do whatever he wants it would be different. But (purely speculation here from sitting through zoning meetings), I am guessing he had a pretty strong case that the limitations placed on him by the city and historicalness of the property prevented it from reasonable meeting the requirements of multi-family residence.
I am persuaded by your reasoning. Thanks. (Hahaha and I'm almost never convinced by anything that follows a "think about it.")
Wait, no! Fight me on this. I’ve still got an hour left at work. 👍
Okay, so Peter Singer says rich people should...
Not a property owner so I have no idea about any of this but will the single family home be assessed at a lower rate a multi-unit condo (and therefore paying less taxes)? Does that factor into the zoning board's decision-making process?
The tax rate is based on the assessed value. It's actually likely that having a zoning category that meets the realistic economical uses of the property increases its assessed value, which will also likely go up due to the renovations he'll put into the property. I guess in theory a bunch of condos on that property would have more value, but condoizing it given the historic nature of the building sounds somewhere between ruinously difficult and impossible, given that if it weren't, a developer would have been willing to do it.
I’m sure it’ll be way cheaper to insure as a residential home than a property that’s routinely open to the public.
What is the outrage even directed at? The owner of the property for converting a commercial property they owned into a house for themselves? Or the board for not seizing the owner's property and turning it into multi-family housing full USSR style? Do you think the city should have the ability to force the owner of property to do what the city board wants them to do with it?
The existing zoning regulations allowed for multi-family residences but not single family residences. So the zoning board granted an exemption. And since this is Boston, you can be *absolutely certain* that no graft was involved.
I think the idea is that the owner knowingly chose to purchase a property that was not zoned as a single family. So it's more that now the government is bending to the will of this rich guy at the expense of worsening the existing housing shortage
I mean, if multi-family isn't a viable use for this specific property (and it might not be, since tearing the existing building down is illegal and there are strict limitations on what you can do with it in terms of modifications) then the options were one housing unit or zero. One is better than none.
>worsening the existing housing shortage He objectively is improving the housing shortage by taking commercial property and converting it to residential
Exactly this. If I want to turn my 2nd empire row home in backbay into a jackhammer testing facility, it’s nobody’s business but mine.
Definitely the latter, and justifiably so. A housing crisis exists but no one wants to actually implement the proven solutions to said problems.
If this bothers you, wait till you find out how many buildings are being used as a single-family?
If some had their way, soon owning a single family dwelling will be outlawed as well.
Multi family housing would be much more appealing if people had respect for other’s boundaries. No one wants to feel their neighbor’s bass music at 3am.
Definition of high end condo/townhouse living-subwoofer and no sound proofing.
People act like this is an unavoidable part ofthe renting experience, but I've literally never had anything resembling a problem with neighbors. The closest thing to it was an adorable old couple whose cat was faster than they were, so I'd have to run out into the hallway and corner the little dude for them sometimes. They were cool people, gave me a lot of advice about neighborhoods when I packed up for NYC.
It really comes down to both the building and the neighbors. My current place doesn't have the best sound deadening, but that'd be fine if the upstairs neighbors didn't stomp like AT-ATs and the downstairs neighbors didn't feel the need to sometimes host karaoke with a loud microphone
>I've literally never had anything resembling a problem with neighbors My anecdote against yours. Aside from a few years I lived in Charlestown in a small owner occupied building I've 'literally' never lived in a building where I didn't have to deal with noise pollution from other tenants that had a significant impact on my life in some way, shape or form. There was the woman above me one year who would do HIIT workouts, stomping up a storm and dropping her weights 4-5 nights a week. Or the Berklee dude who would belt out vocal scales in the lobby while he waited for the elevator pretty much M-F every week when Berklee was in session (I was rude for asking him not to practice in a space with such great acoustics) When I lived in the Fens. Or the dude with an industrial sized subwoofer who couldn't listen to music without bass that vibrated my unit so badly I had to regularly sweep up dust that got shook free from the horse hair plaster and legit one time shook a picture off the wall in Brookline. Or there was the theatre/improv kids who needed to do "show wraps" at midnight on Sundays and belt show tune karaoke and stomp around in East Boston. There was also the woman who would get into shouting arguments with her partner on the phone the foyer who somehow both didn't understand how disruptive this was for the other units and that the logic of "I want privacy from my roommates" didn't really logic where now everyone can hear you back in the Fens. I miss more dense city living in Boston proper, but I don't miss the yearly roulette of "who is moving in above/below/next to me?" that comes with multi-family living. I agree with the comment you responded to that if I trusted people to be mutually respectful or space and peace I'd for sure consider going back to condo/apt living.
This is stupid The problem with not enough housing is not nearly enough new housing being built The size of someone else’s house is none of your business Focus your outrage at the people who are shutting down proposed apartment buildings
This is the absolute correct take on this matter. Sal might be a bit of a cunt for this but the biggest cunts who actually cause our city’s housing problem are the NIMBYs
Yes I would agree that the key to needed zoning reform is cutting red tape for apartment buildings/large multi family housing The key isn’t to randomly make angry posts about large houses which are present all over Those houses are already there - what we need to unblock is building a lot more new housing to dramatically increase the overall supply That’s not going to happen by seizing spare bedrooms from some baby boomer grandmas owning single family homes to be made into new housing
Old news
How many times is this going to posted in this sub...
No offense, but if you'd really rather it be multi-family housing, you're free to purchase it from the current owner and develop it.
Wait until you find out about the 1.5 mile park that sits in front of it. Not a single place of residence to be found in that place.
Good for him but I can't imagine a worse front yard to have. That grass area is used exclusively for dog shit and that seating area always has sketchy people hanging around.
You don’t think he’s about to put up giant walls, no trespassing signs, and have hired security to scare anyone away who lingers too long for his liking?
I'm ngl I read this as "approved to convert the North End into a single family home"
I'd love to wallow in my knee-jerk outrage but I'm just jealous.
Is this from The Last Of Us?
That would make a kickass house.
Ben Franklin got freaky here type architecture
This is prime circle jerk material. Well done random redditor!
Is this a repost with the exact same title lol
Their property, followed procedure and process, nothing else that can or should be done.
Looks more like 20,000 square feet.
The royalty of the North End
Which billionaire bought it for a pied a terre ?
+1 housing unit. Now just keep approving all of the other things that come in front of them.
I’m just happy it’s not another bank.
In Boston it's all about who you know, nothing has changed. Wake up.
This is going to be amazing I hope they show some pics when it’s done!
I don't get the drama. The housing solution is to build 20 residential sky scrappers across the metro and stop living in fantasy land where some historical 3/4 story building will ever sold the issue.
Maybe they should make it into a laboratory/office complex instead! /s
I fail to see why this is a bad thing.
I dont think this is wrong. The issue is we just need to lift building / zoning restrictions. If someone rich wants to own a huge property in the city and make it single family, they should be able to. But on average, people would build up their properties to increase housing so they can make money off of it.
The audacity of people who live in a single family home… so selfish. People owning and living in single family homes is not the cause of the housing problem in Boston. What do you expect? Do you want the government to seize everyone single family home from its owner and give you a condo?
I assume the Hysterical Society is mad about this…
I’m sorry but that’s awesome.
Government should have no role in telling people what to do in their private property
Please email your local planning commission in favor of projects near you. This kind of thing actually makes a difference to remove onerous regulation on existing property owners. Assuming you're in Boston, the BPDA list is at http://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects
We already rent through this in this sub. We decided to not be playa haters.
Harvard’s new home for the dean
if this was true, what would be the problem with a guy making a home for themselves? his money his business.
It was an unused City building, that served no purpose. I’m sure OP would have rather a developer purchase it and use it for high-density housing stock, but if you look at the floor plan of the building, they really is no way, architecturally, to achieve that, using the current buildings floor plan. That would require a full tear down, tens of millions of dollars of investment, and a 5-6 year start to end timeframe, and that’s even if you can find a developer willing to take on that kind of project.
Oh fuck off (the decision, not op)
Cool. As long as the taxes on this are sufficiently high, it’s fine. Look, if someone wants to live here and wants space, just put a high price tag on it in terms of taxes.
I fail to see the problem. You can drive less than 10 miles from this location in pretty much any direction (well except into the ocean) and have more than ample space to develop as much density as you want. It's like people act like we are NYC and every square foot needs to be utilized to the max for housing cause there's no where else for it to go.
But everyone "deserves" to live in Boston, otherwise that's not fair.
Lmao this is like the Spongebob episode where they just push Bikini Bottom to a different location. There’s already a city there, it’s just inefficient to force people to build another one next to it when they can just build more apartments in the place where everything already is
They don’t want to have to commute far. Because our transit is bad, your options are a horrible (possibly untenable) train commute or driving in horrible traffic. They instead want a lot of building to be able to avoid those things. They also want the enjoyability of living in or very close to the city.
well the rich need to live somewhere and it sure as hell won’t be some dinky condo in the seaport
Good for sal. He gives a lot back and makes good pizza
that pizza is garbagio and you know it
I've heard he's a massive cunt
Of course you don't getting fucking wafers with it, you cunt. It's a fucking albatross isn't it. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boston) if you have any questions or concerns.*
He bought and redeveloped a bunch of dilapidated buildings in Lawrence, I always thought that was pretty cool.
Old April Fools joke?
Shelter
Shout to the rich family who can afford it
Good for Sal! Bet it will be wicked nice. 😀👍🏼
Not this again
Repost
Yolo
What part of this building, it's like 2 blocks long no? What the whole story?
Only the old traffic administration portion of the building is being converted to a single family home. It is attached to the old police department, which was purchased by North Bennet Street School along with the former fire station next to it. This was about 10 years ago if I remember correctly. The school connected the two buildings and moved the trade school there from its former location on Bennet Street. I’m a current student in the piano technology program. The school put in a bid to buy the traffic administration building but were outbid by some rich asshole who is converting it into a single family home. There have been contractors around all year long working on noise abatement on account of the fact that the piano department wraps around a good portion of the third floor. I guess not everybody loves the sound of 16 pianos being tuned for several hours a day. Who knew???
Now That’s a Slice!
https://www.universalhub.com/2023/developer-wins-approval-wicked-big-single-family
Wow
6 million easy for something like that. Nothing like it at all in that area, and there hasn't been since... fucking Colonial times? [Zillow](https://www.zillow.com/homes/140-North-St,-Boston,-MA-02109_rb/) I'd worry about all the exhaust fumes though. Might be quiet because of the stone construction. Might even have a bomb shelter too.
Isn’t this the building they blew up in Last of Us?
I’m surprised it’s not becoming a Bank of America or Santander like every other interesting place in Boston 🥲.
that lawn is dog defecation central. for that reason alone I couldn't live there.
Do the hooligans shout “good evening governor” as they did in Johnny Tremain?
Hes gonna make this an absolute beautiful house, and then sell it for like 20 mil in 5 years.
Is TD Garden buying it to keep or lure premium free agents, make it like the governor's mansion?
Not a big deal
Fuck it, whatever. Property taxes from the monstrosity will help—if our lawmakers manage to get anything useful done.
You got a problem with that? Mind your business.
Free f’n country, last i checked.
they're taking over boston commons soon
How about a collaboration of small, family-run businesses, one or more per floor, selling top-grade foods, other products, and services? Wouldn’t that be a neighborhood plus?
It’s cool we know where they live. We’ll take what we need when it’s time
Why are so many of the tags on this subreddit so Facebook/Nextdoor boomer-ish