Rendering by Embarc.
A developer who bought a vacant lot at Dorchester Avenue and B Street last year is asking the BPDA to sign off on plans to build a six-story, 114-unit apartment building there.
In a notice of project change, current owner Huabin Fan of Wellesley says he would keep roughly the same plans as approved by the BPDA in 2017 and then again in 2019, but that, in keeping with changing times - and changing city requirements - he is proposing just 20 parking spaces, down from the original 70, and a building that would have no natural-gas hookups.
Also, he would shrink the number of studios by increasing the number of one-bedroom units - each of which would have an installed desk - because of the growing number of people who now work at home.
The plans call for 20 of the units to be rented as affordable. Ground-floor commercial space would be rented at below-market rates to the non-profit Ultimate Self Defense and Performance Center.
An earlier developer first signaled plans to build on the property in 2015, with a 120-space garage - 50 spaces to be used by a car-rental company. The BPDA approved the plans in 2017, then approved changing the originally proposed apartments to condos in 2019. After that, the developer demolished the existing buildings on the site, and began excavation and installation of steel sheet piles, but had to stop work due to Boston's pandemic ban on construction in 2020.
In May, 2022, a potential site buyer filed for BPDA approval to resume the project, then abandoned the proposal.
In June, 2022, Fan purchased the roughly half-acre site for roughly $10.8 million.