Six-building Allston Square project clears major hurdle

One of the largest developments in an Allston awash in new projects has cleared what’s probably its last hurdle to construction.

The Boston Zoning Board of Appeal signed off on February 4 on the six-building Allston Square project at Cambridge and Linden streets. Four of the six buildings will be new, and developer City Realty plans to preserve and incorporate the existing Allston Hall at 4 Braintree Street and the Allen Building at 334 Cambridge Street—the former home of Jack Young Auto Parts—as part of the project.

All totaled, Allston Square is due to have 100 rental units and 244 ownership spreads. Those spreads will include 12 income-restricted ones aimed at artists seeking live-work space. Some 45 of Allston Square’s units will be income-restricted.

City Realty also plans a lot of public artwork, including murals and sculptures as well as exhibition space amid 27,758 square feet of open space and 9,000 square feet of public art space. These spaces are meant to connect the six buildings too. And there will be 158 parking spaces and 12,860 square feet of retail.

The Boston Planning and Development Agency approved the project in November 2019 (see City Realty’s presentation from that month here). An official groundbreaking could come before the end of 2020, or in early 2021, according to a City Realty spokesman. And the project will go up in phases per community feedback.

Meanwhile, check out the other big project slated for Allston, including Harvard’s engineering campus and its so-called enterprise complex. There’s also Allston Yards and Allston Green, and the proposed redevelopment of the current site of the Skating Club of Boston.