Developers scale back JP apartment complex
Redevelopers of a former Jamaica Plain nursing home site are proposing to scale back their plans for an apartment complex, citing significant financial challenges posed by the current construction market.
Eden Properties and Samuels & Associates, which won Boston Planning & Development Agency approval last March for 167 apartments on the former Goddard House Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center site, now want to build 149 units and have shaved 15,000 square feet from their proposal.
While they still plan 110 units in the former nursing home, they want 39 instead of 57 apartments in a new adjacent, five-story building slated for the two-acre site at 201-205 South Huntington Ave. and overlooking the Jamaicaway.
Since the complex structural-support system needed for the Goddard House makes it difficult for changes to that building, the companies said they focused on the expensive rock excavation, shoring and deep foundations needed for the new building, which would have a new footprint limited to the flattest portion of the property on the existing parking lot. The changes would result in a smaller building more clearly oriented on South Huntington, with a setback from the Jamaicaway that would increase from 45 feet to 70 to 110 feet.
Changes also are in store for an East Boston project at 135 Bremen St. The BPDA in 2014 approved a $19 million project with 94 apartments and 8,300 square feet of commercial space at the site near the East Boston Greenway. The developers — founders of East Boston’s Capitol Waste Services — now want 94 condos in the six-story, market-rate building.