South Boston restaurant could make way for, no, not condos, but biotech

Two developers want to build a six-story life-sciences building on the West 3rd Street parcel now occupied by the Coppersmith restaurant, the one with the food truck inside.

Alexandra Real Estate Equities, which owns a number of Kendall Square buildings with biotech tenants, is partnering with local real-estate investment firm Anchor Line Partners on the proposal. The two recently alerted the BPDA they plan to file detailed plans for a 95-foot-tall, 210,000-square foot building by the end of March.

The two say they would tear down the warehouse in which Coppersmith now operates, along with other structures on the parcel, which runs between West 2nd and West 3rd streets, and A Street and the South Boston Haul Road. The two companies say they will ask the city for permission to discontinue a dead end that now juts into the property from Bolton Street.

Through the Project, the Proponent would make a substantial investment to reposition and revitalize the Project Site away from obsolete trades to serving 21st-century life sciences tenants, with an attractive, state-of-the-art facility.

The building would have roughly 75 parking spaces; the developers point to the Broadway Red Line stop three blocks away - and note how convenient that will be for people to get to and from the Kendall Square biotech area.

The developers say their building might have some ground-floor retail use.