The developer of the old Hodge Boiler Works site on the Eastie waterfront, Philip DeNormandie, agreed earlier this winter to scale back his plans from 119 apartments to 95, thereby knocking off about 80,000 square feet. Designs of this scaled-back version are to be presented tonight to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and the latest new apartment building in Boston may get the green light. DeNormandie says that that approval from the BRA means he can get funding for the five-story building that will include a cafe and a 30-slip marina, and will sit above a 52-car garage.
It will open along an East Boston waterfront undergoing drastic change, the kind that has taken South Boston from gritty to glamorous (alright, not glamorous, but you know...). The Menino administration has made redeveloping the waterfront a keystone of its economic development policy, complete with inter-neighborhood ferries to insure that, say, techies who want to dwell in Eastie and work in Southie's Innovation District can. Predictably, then, a rep associated with DeNormandie's project last month told a public hearing that while Eastie rents were traditionally less expensive than much of the city's, the ones in the reworked Hodge Boiler Works would be competitive with other waterfront projects (e.g. high).
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· South Boston Techies Will Rescue East Boston Real Estate [Curbed Boston]