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Boston Flower Exchange Conversion: Two Big, Unanswered Questions

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New owner imagines a tech campus to compete with Kendall

This week brought the news that the Abbey Group, the developer that bought the Boston Flower Exchange off Albany Street in South End, plans to turn the 5.6-acre expanse into some sort of Kendall Square competitor, a ginormous techie campus for up to 10,000 workers.

It's very early days—the Abbey Group has yet to file a formal proposal and wants to talk to the neighbors first—but it looks like there are already two big questions re: the plans.

No. 1, why not housing? Admittedly, there is a ton of housing going up in that corner of the South End. But Boston continues to face a chronic shortage of quality digs for a steadily growing population, even with the new construction. The developer is considering "some housing," according to Tim Logan at the Globe. It's a start, we suppose...

Now, Question No. 2: How will thousands upon thousands of workers get to these offices? It won't be by T. And congestion is bad enough along that stretch of I-93. Of course, the new residents that new housing would spawn would add to the crunch, too, but not as much as the far greater number of workers imagined.

Stay tuned.