Former IHOP site in West Roxbury could become apartment complex

While the number of affordable units is not laid out, the project will comply with current city requirements calling for at least 15 percent of all units in new apartment projects to be rented out at below market rates.

West Roxbury, like much of the city, would benefit from an uptick in housing units, especially ones that low-income families can afford. Kayana Szymczak for the Boston Globe

By Scott Van Voorhis

October 5, 2015

1 minute to read

An empty lot that was once home to a pancake house would be transformed into badly needed housing for Boston families under a proposal by a West Roxbury developer.

Sovad LLC wants to build an 84-unit apartment complex at 1235-1237 VFW Parkway (Route 1) in West Roxbury, a nearly two acre site that has sat vacant for four years since the IHOP there closed, according to a letter of intent filed by the developer with the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The four-story complex will include 21 three-bedroom units, typically hard to find, as well as 42 two-bedrooms, 21 one-bedrooms and 126 parking spots. While the number of affordable units is not laid out, the project will comply with current city requirements calling for at least 15 percent of all units in new apartment projects to be rented out at below market rates, the developer writes.

Totaling 108,661 square feet, the new residential complex would take shape near Home Depot and Millennium Park.

“The project will assist in addressing the shortage of market-rate and affordable housing units, while accommodating families with a majority of three-bedroom and two-bedroom units, notes Peter Davos, Sovad’s managing director, in a letter to city officials.

Davos and Sovad met last week at a local restaurant with neighborhood residents to discuss their proposed housing development. A number of previous plans for commercial development at the site went nowhere, Davos notes in his letter.

“Finally, as a local developer and 32-year resident of West Roxbury, I am personally vested and excited about the potential of the proposed project in our community,’’ Davos writes.