Excavation work for Kendrick Place @ 57 E Pleasant Street has commenced
It may not look like much at the moment but after Kendrick Place is completed it will be an unmistakable anchor for the north end of downtown Amherst.
The LEED certified mixed-use building will tower five stories (in Amherst, that's a tower) and contain 36 units of high-end apartments over four floors with the ground floor set aside for retail.
Archipelago Investments, LLC has already built a similar successful project dead in the center of town, Boltwood Place.
Last month Amherst Town Meeting voted down a simple easement request for the abutting intersection at Triangle and East Pleasant Street, which is required if the town chooses to install a state financed roundabout at that busy intersection.
The NO vote was a thinly disguised NIMBY payback for the Planning Board allowing Kendrick Place and Boltwood Place to be approved without requiring on site parking for tenants, and allowing the projects to go forward with no "affordable" units in the mix.
The town is currently teetering on the brink of falling below state mandated 10% threshold of Subsidized Housing Inventory thus opening up the possibility of a Ch40B mega-development coming to town.
A survey contractor measuring the intersection earlier this month
You don't need tenant parking for any of the other downtown buildings.
ReplyDeleteWon't the new project block the views out of the Bertuccis side windows? Will the exhaust smoke Fromm the kitchen be rerouted not to effect the new apartments? Who is responsible for approving this project? How is the Boltwood project considered successfully?
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, full occupancy is a pretty good indicator.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe this "Ch40B" threat BS. Pelham has been under the line forever and no mega-developments have ever happened there. It's 5 mins from downtown... if it's not happened in Pelham where the need is even more apparent, why would it happen in Amherst?
ReplyDeleteIs Boltwood Place a condo or rental apartments?
ReplyDeleteRental.
ReplyDeleteI think, 12:09, because Amherst is a more desirable place to live, especially for folks who are less well off... easier access to jobs, schools, grocery stores and shops, public transportation, parks and recreation, libraries, and safety net services like the Survival Center and Not Bread Alone.
ReplyDeleteOr, as Larry's post heading alludes to... When you build it (here), they will come.
Probably not as certain a bet for a developer to make in Pelham.
No parking plan? They'll all be parking at Bertuccis and Amherst Copy and Designworks.
ReplyDeleteNot true. They are attractive for students without cars that want to walk to campus.
ReplyDeleteTime for the long awaited second deck on the parking garage. We say that we want a vibrant downtown, but what that requires is a critical mass of residents in the downtown to create that vibrancy. Bring it on!
ReplyDeleteYep. Long overdue.
ReplyDeleteLow cost housing- but other expenses are higher- Look at Chicopee: a large variety of bargain store chains, cheaper grocery prices (different fliers than us) cheaper gas/ milk prices, auto part chain stores that provide free installation, and close to the Mass Pike (faster and easier access for jobs)
ReplyDeleteYeah. Chicopee's cheaper to live in. What else has it got going for it? From what I can see, little more than an ocean of strip malls and proximity to the Pike, which would necessitate owning a car for access. If you were a low wage earner striving to do better for yourself or your children, where would you choose to live, Amherst or Chicopee? I think it's a no brainer, especially in terms of educational opportunity, which is the only real "leg up" in our society these days given the decline in unskilled labor and career opportunities.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe this "Ch40B" threat BS. Pelham has been under the line forever and no mega-developments have ever happened there.
ReplyDeleteYet....
Pelham only now is getting a sewer line and while you *can* have a megadevelopment without a sewer connection, it involves building & maintaining what is more of a sewerage treatment plant than a septic system -- a not inexpensive thing.
It will be interesting to see what happens....
The jersey barriers for this project are blocking sidewalk access
ReplyDelete