Hyde Park woodland eyed for 270-apartment complex

A major developer is moving toward a project that would turn 14 acres of Hyde Park woodland into a nine-building, 270-apartment complex.

Lincoln Property Company, a national organization with an increasingly busy Boston office that includes projects in the glitzy Seaport, is looking at the woods at 990 American Legion Highway for the project.

The Boston Planning & Development Agency sent out a letter of intent from the company on Tuesday afternoon, but then said it did so prematurely. A BPDA spokeswoman said a formal letter of intent, which signals the beginning of a major Boston project, is expected in the coming weeks after the developers hold a community meeting with Hyde Park neighbors.

The letter said Lincoln is planning to build nine two- to three-story buildings holding the 270 one- and two-bedroom apartments. There’d also be a clubhouse, a pool, a dog park and other amenities. The developer would make 35 of the units income-restricted, per the city’s affordable-housing rules.

The complex would include 455 parking spaces. The developer wrote in this version of the letter of intent that no zoning relief will be necessary because the site is so big, at 14.1 acres. The land is currently owned by Jubilee Christian Church International, and is full of trees right now.

Bostonians with an interest in local crime will recognize this area as being right next to the Walgreens where Detective John Mulligan was killed in 1993, a case made famous by the recent Netflix docu-series “Trial 4.” The show charted the attempts of a man convicted of the slaying to show he was wrongfully imprisoned; the man, Sean Ellis, was released in 2018, and it’s unclear who killed Mulligan.

In a strange coincidence, one of the lawyers representing the developers also has connections to the case: Dan Conley, the former Suffolk County district attorney, who’s copied on the letter. Conley’s office didn’t handle any of Ellis’ three trials, but his DA’s office was pushing for the fourth trial that gave the series its name.

Conley, now working for Mintz, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the project.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/306k7C9