Dorchester parking lot could host apartment development in latest twist for Boston trend

Another Boston parking lot is inching toward its second act. This time it’s in Dorchester between Clam Point and Neponset.

There New Jersey-based Michaels Development plans to buy a controlling stake in the 1.81-acre lot at 780 Morrissey Boulevard. Before the parking, it also once hosted the Phillips Old Colony House and Freeport Tavern event space and restaurant, which shuttered in early 2017.

Michaels’ development plans call for a six-story, 200-unit apartment complex that would include studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms as well as an outdoor courtyard. The developer plans to make its case to locals starting this month, and to file plans formally with the city, per the Dorchester Reporter’s Bill Forry.

If those plans come to fruition, the parcel five miles from downtown would become but the latest Boston parking lot or parking garage to be redeveloped or slated for such. The most recent was a Back Bay parking lot—the last surface lot along Newbury Street, in fact—that traded for $40 million earlier this summer to a Chicago firm that specializes in retail development.

The redevelopment trend is part of an even larger one that is seeing decades-old parking norms in Boston disrupted. Stay tuned.