The Cambridge City Council passed a resolution this week imploring M.I.T. not to close the mammoth Metropolitan Moving & Storage Warehouse in Kendall Square and convert it into housing for as many as 450 students among other uses.
The council would instead like the university to continue to lease the 221,194-square-foot building to the moving and storage firm or at least give those storing their stuff there more time to move out—as in a year more. Right now, storage tenants are supposed to move their stuff by Oct. 30 so M.I.T. can get down to the business of converting the fortress at Vassar Street and Mass. Ave.
The city's call for keeping the warehouse as storage rather than housing is predictably—and understandably—not sitting well with some. That's because Cambridge suffers from an acute housing shortage, one that students in the general housing pool only exacerbate. Council supporters of the resolution say they are only trying to help storage tenants who may have gotten short notice from the university. We'll see what happens. Told you this conversion was going to be a brouhaha.
· Council Seeks Reprieve From M.I.T. on Plans to Empty, Replace Metropolitan Warehouse [Day]
· M.I.T. Turning Massive Metropolitan Warehouse Into Dorms [Curbed Boston]
· Grab Your Popcorn! Big Fight May Loom for M.I.T. Development [Curbed Boston]
· Cambridge's Housing Market, Circa 2014, Explained in One Deal [Curbed Boston]
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