Savin Hill May Be New Hot Spot For Middle-Class Buyers, Renters

The DotBlock development, if approved, would include, condos, apartments, shops, and restaurants.

The DotBlock development, if approved, would include, condos, apartments, shops, and restaurants. Rode Architects, Inc.

March 20, 2015

2 minutes to read

The development boom that is remaking Boston’s skyline and transforming neighborhoods like South Boston is now rolling into Dorchester.

The latest is DotBlock, a proposed mix of condos, apartments, shops, and restaurants that would take shape on what is now a 3 1/2-acre patch of run-down warehouses and industrial buildings on Dorchester Avenue in the neighborhood’s Savin Hill section, near the Savin Hill T stop.

Atlas Investment Group recently kicked off the formal city review process, filing plans for its $75 million development plan.

The DotBlock plan follows on the heels of a proposal by development giant Edens to expand the South Bay shopping center in Dorchester. That plan calls for 500 apartments, a 65,000-square-foot cinema, 115,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, and a 150 to 200-room hotel.

“Dorchester should have been hot a long time ago — people are finally catching up,’’ said Catherine O’Neill, a neighborhood resident who is the spokeswoman for DotBlock.

DotBlock is banking on tapping into unmet demand for new middle-class housing in Boston’s neighborhoods and beyond, attracting everyone from young professionals and families just starting out to empty nesters, O’Neill said.

Those empty nesters, in turn, could very well include couples who moved out of Dorchester or other Boston neighborhoods for the suburbs years ago and now want to give the city another chance, she noted.

“We are offering a home for everyone here,’’ O’Neill said.

Atlas Investment Group’s proposal envisions the condos taking shape closer to the neighborhood’s residential streets. Apartments and retail are planned for the busier, more commercial area by Dorchester Avenue.

The condos are designed to have a distinctively neighborhood flair, with eight, double-bowfront buildings. They will each resemble a pair of triple deckers pushed together, with no space in between, said Eric Robinson of the South End-based RODE Architects.

The condos, totaling 64 in all, will be priced at around $400,000 in a bid to appeal to those middle-class buyers priced out of Boston amid an explosion of luxury housing. The two-bedroom, two-bath units will have 1,150 square feet of space.

“They are a little bigger than the traditional triple decker, but they have similar scaling and architectural features,’’ Robinson said.

Three apartment buildings are planned as well, with units averaging about 950 square feet a piece.

A five-story apartment building with 50 units is planned for DotBlock’s first phase. The second phase includes a pair of six-story buildings totaling 145 more units, along with a 400-car garage. There are also plans for a 20,000-square-foot roof deck.

A total of 40,000 square feet of neighborhood style retail is planned for the ground floor of the two six-story buildings, with a mix of coffee shops, restaurants, and possibly a grocery store currently being eyed, Robinson said.

The new mixed-use development will also include a new walkway for shoppers, residents, and pedestrians running through it as well, he said.

Atlas’s decision to push ahead with plans to begin the city permitting process follows 17 months of meetings and talks with a range of neighborhood organizations and civic groups, according to O’Neill.

The developer hopes to nail down all his permits over the next few months, clear the site by the summer, and begin construction in the fall, Robinson said.