Kendrick Place, opening by September 1st
Gloom and doom aficionados will be watching closely over the next few weeks as one of the more controversial buildings du jour -- after all, what building in Amherst has not generated controversy -- will open for business. Just in time for the students return.
In an update to the Planning Board earlier this week developers Kyle Wilson and Dave Williams presented "streetscape" plans for the finished product, although with the undergrounding of utility poles yet to be completed some of the work will have to put off until next year.
Streetlights for instance. DPW Chief Guilford Mooring told the Planning Board the MassWorks $1.5 million grant for the utility work only included the installation of tradition streetlights.
So if the board was interested in using the ornate, more efficient LEDs, they should take a quick tour of the Atkins Corner project where the streetlights are working just fine.
Mooring said he would still install traditional streetlights around Kendrick Place for the winter but could then replace them with the fancier ones, and simply reuse the conventional ones as spare parts. The price per unit for LED has come down to around the same $500 per unit as conventional ones.
Atkins Corner LED streetlight
Parking is of course the main issue with Kendrick Place -- or I should say the lack of it. Because it's located in the Municipal Parking District there are no minimum parking requirements. Thus critics wonder where the 104 tenants from the 36 units will park.
Although Amherst has one of the most extensive free bus systems in the region.
The Planning Board will present an article to Fall Town Meeting calling for the simplification of using private parking lots in the downtown as separate stand alone businesses to attempt to make more efficient use of parking. Private lots currently provide the lions share of parking in the downtown.
Property owner across the street not interested in sharing his parking lots
But Jeff Brown, the property owner directly across Triangle Street from Kendrick Place, said he has no interest in using his parking lots for anything but the convenience of his commercial tenants.
Town officials will also be closely monitoring the absorption of Kendrick Place into the downtown ecosystem, since the same developers are planning One East Pleasant Street, a much larger mixed use building within a shadow of Kendrick Place.
Construction crews working on a Saturday (8/22) to ensure September 1 opening
Downtown Amherst needs to shift away from mandatory parking requirements and towards a system that allows for market rate pricing. Otherwise, the discussion of downtown development will revolve around "but what about the parking?". It is time to let pricing determine parking use.
ReplyDeletePlanning for parking is the equivalent to subsidising car users at the expense of everyone else. And this could be turned on its head with a parking benefit district.
If you like to see the downtown stay a worthless crater, you should fight all development. If you happen to own a lot of land downtown and are interested in improving the value of your land, embrace a parking benefit district.
Unwind the parking paradox. Start a parking benefit district.
I agree Boltwood parking should be $250 a month and the CVS and Cousins lots should be at least $25 a day. All downtown meters should be at least $5 per hour. The prop tax on all commercial prop should be at market rate.
ReplyDeleteParking is big business in any town these days. The owners of Kendrick Place got away with murder in this case.
ReplyDeleteTake a look into the future, APD will have their hands full with this building, which includes renters and guests. Good luck folks.
Tow trucks are going to make a killing.
ReplyDelete"Take a look into the future, APD will have their hands full with this building, which includes renters and guests. Good luck folks."
ReplyDeleteErrr O.k., pops.
-Squeaky Squeaks
p.s. Meanwhile, Ponziviller heavy-weights spend some quality time in the rarefied mountain air:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZASlgkuqRY
Fking morons.
I've heard they are having problems finding renters at such high prices. Parking may not be a problem if only 1/3rd or the building is occupied.
ReplyDeleteHeard from whom?
ReplyDeleteSeems odd that Jeff Brown wouldn't be interested in maximizing his parking asset. Those lots are never close to full and the new business coming to his commercial tenants from increased density downtown (which I'm imagining will be huge) is likely to be all pedestrian.
ReplyDeleteAsk him.
ReplyDeleteAnon 4:24: please explain the details of a PBD (parking benefit district) - what do you have in mind, specifically? And why not a TBD (transportation benefit district, that provides funding for alternative transportation as well)?
ReplyDeleteAnd about those LED lights: most of the new ones in Amherst need better shielding or lenses - they are blinding around their sides (to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians alike) and pollute the dark night sky with scattered light.
- Disappointed Astrophysicist
Responding to Anon. 2:31: Jeff Brown, I'm asking: Why aren't you interested in devoting a portion of your abundance of parking spaces to a pay per use system in order to support increased density downtown which will inevitably lead to increased business to your commercial tenants and increased market value wealth to you?
ReplyDeleteAre you all blind? Look at the photo. There are not that many spaces per building. There are no acres of extra parking.
ReplyDelete$5 per hour to park at a meter? A $1.25 per 15 min rate! Yea, that will work. I'm sure all the summer event on Saturday's in the town common and the lunch and ice cream places would be perfectly happy with no customers.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that was sarcasm, but because they didn't use the special font ...
ReplyDeleteChicken Littles.
ReplyDeleteFor the love of God, no one is going to rent there if they need to park close to home. There are a lot of folks who don't mind walking a distance to their vehicles. People arrange their lives around that sort of thing. They shop so that they don't have a lot of bags to carry, they get up five minutes earlier to go to work, they let their visitors know ahead of time, etc. When I go downtown I park on Blue Hills, Dana, or Hitckock and easily walk in. I know, I know... then they are taking up parking spaces on side streets that the residents could be using... but someone is going to be parking there anyway, might as well be a neighbor. I'll just park further away when I go downtown. Richard Marsh
And walking is such good exercise.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is there are a lot of people who cannot, for what ever reason walk very long distances. These are the people that need to be parking where their needs are. Yes some have handicap cards, but a lot of them don't. That being said, where will the renters who have handicaps park if they live at Kendrick Place?
ReplyDeletepeople with disabilities are not always tied to their cars, my 88 y.o. blind Dad can't drive but still gets around fine without driving. There are other options in town.
ReplyDeleteGet real. Many of the buildings downtown have no elevators or parking. People are living in them just fine.
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:02: Why would anyone who needed to park close to their home rent at Kendrick Place? RM
ReplyDeleteIt's a myth that there is a shortage of downtown parking for business customers (Kendrick Park is a different issue). The problem is that people want to park directly in front of the store or restaurant and can't tolerate walking a few blocks, especially if the walking involves crossing a street or going around a corner. Studies have shown that people are willing to walk the equivalent of two city blocks across a mall parking lot but they won't walk the same distance in a town or city center. The difference, apparently, is that if their destination is not in sight, it's perceived as being further away. New parking structures in the CVS lot or elsewhere won't change this perception and behavior.
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:14 pm:
ReplyDeleteThe difference between Kendrick Park and the other rental buildings downtown is that Kendrick Park is not marketed to students. The prices are out of the reach for most students. It is being marketed to working people who may not be able to get by on a bus system that is set up to serve UMass students. In addition, downtown Amherst has a limited array of businesses. For example, where and how is it expected that Kendrick Place residents will shop for groceries?
You're absolutely wrong. Kendrick Park is most assuredly being marketed.to students. It was designed with students in mind.
Delete7:14 - If the tenants are UMass students, faculty or staff, they may not shop for groceries much. UMass has an award-winning dining system on campus that is used by students, staff, and faculty. There is little reason to shop for groceries when there's a tax-subsidized (and sales-tax free) alternative of prepared foods.
ReplyDelete8:40
ReplyDeleteI read that study on the "Suburban Mall Developers of America" (SMDoA) website. If you can't trust SMDoA, who can you trust?
They also funded a study that proves that driving a car (vs. walking) does not contribute to obesity.
Well Anon.9:22 if the tenants are eating on campus maybe Arch should market some units without kitchens and lower the lease from $1,700 for a single bedroom. How can students afford these rates?
ReplyDeleteKP is plainly not designed for students. Duh. A prof/researcher at $120k+ maybe, but not students.
ReplyDeleteGrad students can borrow the entire cost of tuition, room and board. Easily cover that rent.
ReplyDeleteYes 3:49 when your already 200k in debt what's another 20k per year for room and board. In fact the higher the debt the better. When you can't possible pay it back you can negotiate it down like Greece.
ReplyDeleteAt some point, there needs to be an inventory of all the dire warnings that have been fired off about this building, some of them contradictory. The building, in its unfinished condition, has been a political resource for a certain "school" of thought in town, especially in Town Meeting, but also in the local media.
ReplyDeleteA certain former Select Board member has promised me that he will make a public apology if the building turns out to be something other than a large dormitory.
Rich Morse
You don't know very much about a grad student's expenses, do you?
ReplyDeleteThe good news is, we can soon dispense with the speculating and assess the reality.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous August 24, 2015 at 9:22 AM:
ReplyDeleteTax IS charged on prepared food sold in UMass dining establishments to all but current students. Faculty, staff, and guests who buy prepared food on campus are charged tax.
Anonymous, August 24, 2015 at 10:36 AM:
ReplyDeleteYour are flat wrong. Kendrick Place is marketed as a "luxury apartment building" with a target market of young professionals. Some of these may work at UMass Amherst or at Amherst College, but it is NOT targeted to UMass undergrads or grad students. I have been told his directly by the building management.
And even if students can borrow up to the hilt, most are smart enough not to do so.
UMass grad student here: Kendrick Place has been reaching out to us through departmental secretaries and listservs, both for market research a few months ago and advertisements more recently. So, yeah, anyone claiming that Kendrick Place isn't being marketed towards students isn't quite informed. Grad students are definitely being targeted. (Not sure what Umass grad student could afford those rents, but that's really a different issue.)
ReplyDeleteSince last spring I've seen ads for KP all over the bulletin boards in Lederle Grad tower which target students (grad and undergrad).
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of students with fairly wealthy parents who could afford to pony up the rent for Kendrick Place.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte