Brighton project would plunk four stories atop an existing Market Street building

A developer wants to fill what a filing with Boston officials earlier this year described as “underutilized commercial land” in Brighton Center with 23 apartments and 24 parking spaces.

The plan from developer Henry Chen for 421-425 Market Street calls for plunking four floors atop a currently vacant building and leaving the ground floor for commercial space. The idea is to spruce up that stretch of Market near the Green Line—and help satiate Boston’s ravenous appetite for new apartments—per Chen’s filing with the Boston Planning and Development Agency.

“Located in the increasingly popular Brighton community,” the filing reads, “this project is situated in one of its most ideal locations, due to its close proximity to a multitude of retail businesses and restaurants within and around Brighton center.”

The BPDA filing is about as far as the proposal has made it, though. That’s because the agency has postponed indefinitely public meetings having to do with most proposed development projects under review due to concerns about the spread of novel coronavirus. An early March meeting re: the Market Street plan was cancelled.

If it does go through, though, the plan will join several other projects either proposed or underway in Brighton and neighboring Allston. These include a pitch for a six-story, 106-unit apartment complex at 1500 Soldier Fields Road and the four-building Allston Yards with its up to 868 housing units.