The redevelopment of Cleveland Circle's old Circle Cinema in the Brighton-Brookline borderlands has been a torturous process. Community opposition (surprise, surprise) has stymied its forward march and now appears to have hemmed in its marketing quite considerably. In a release that came over the Curbed Boston Tipline late Monday, developers the Boston Development Group and National Development announced that the project's 92-unit apartment component would be "an age-restricted adult community much like National Development's award-winning Waterstone at Wellesley independent living community in Wellesley Lower Falls."
The move is, the same release said, "in part to address neighborhood comments." What comments might those be? The ones that said the original plan for a wide-open apartment complex would attract ever more college students to the already gown-y area (Boston College is right nearby). The idea of banning collegians from the complex was even floated for a bit; but it looks like the developers have just gone ahead and put the kibosh on the idea of anyone under 60 or so, thereby taking care of the students and many of their parents. The move could actually prove pretty savvy as downtown Boston has increasingly become a swingin' spot for empty-nesters and other retirees.
The project also includes a 162-room Hilton Garden Inn as well as retail along Chestnut Hill Avenue. The development team hopes to start construction in the middle of 2015, should the City of Boston and the Town of Brookline sign off—and those locals stand down.
· Big Part of Cleveland Circle Plans X'ed Out [Curbed Boston]
· Check Out What's Going Up in Brighton's Cleveland Circle [Curbed Boston]
· Harbor Towers: 600 Feet High, Are You Crazy? This Is Boston! [Curbed Boston]
· Downtown Boston Is Just One Big Empty Nest [Curbed Boston]
· Our Arrested Development archive [Curbed Boston]
[Rendering of previous Cleveland Circle plans via Elkus Manfredi]
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