A developer wants to build another giant complex in the South End

he apartments will take shape in two new buildings ranging in height from 11 to 19 stories.

The Ink Block development, at the site of the former home of the Boston Herald, was a turning point for the neighborhood. David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff

By Scott Van Voorhis

November 6, 2015

2 minutes to read

Yet another blockbuster residential project is being proposed for a once scrappy section of the South End that is fast-becoming one of the hottest new places to live in Boston.

Longtime Boston-based developer Leggat McCall Properties wants to build 700 new apartments in a high-rise mixed-used complex that would take shape near Boston Medical Center along the Harrison Avenue corridor.

The apartments will take shape in two new buildings ranging in height from 11 to 19 stories, according to a letter of intent the developer filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority late Thursday afternoon.

The ground floor of the new apartments would feature a mix of artist live-work space, a gallery and possibly a restaurant as well.

Leggat McCall’s proposed Harrison/Albany Street development is the latest in a series of projects that are fast transforming what was once a section of the city known for half-empty warehouses, large tracts of surface parking and grungy street life.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s developers began snapping up some of the neighborhood’s older industrial and warehouse buildings, turning them into pricey lofts, condos and apartments.

National Development’s deal to buy the Boston Herald building was a turning point, with the hulking red brick newspaper plants and offices now gone, replaced with sleek new high-end residences and a Whole Foods in a development named the Ink Block.

Leggat McCall began work on its big apartment proposal late last year, when it bought a collection of buildings on a three-acre site from Boston Medical Center.

The developer plans to tear down three of the buildings on the site of 125 and 75 East Dedham and 100 East Canton – while renovating 575 Albany for use as part of the project.

A surface parking lot with 48 spaces will be replaced with an underground garage, with plans for open space and other amenities in and around the new apartments, the developer informed city officials.

“Projects like that will go a long way to relieve pressure on Boston’s housing market – both on pricing and on inventory,’’ said David Crowley, director of sales and marketing at Raveis Marketing Group in Boston.

Leggat McCall’s letter of intent to city development officials marks the kick off of the Boston Redevelopment Authority review process, which is likely to take several months to more than a year.