BRA Approves 215-Unit Navy Yard Project

BOSTON-The Boston Redevelopment Authority gave the green light to Martin Oliner’s proposal to build a two-tower residential project in the Charlestown Navy Yard. The approval comes after the New York-based developer scaled down the project in response to local criticism.

According to Meredith Baumann, spokesperson for the BRA, the zoning allows for a building to be 135 ft in height, which is was the original scale of the Harborview Point project. But Baumann tells GlobeSt.com that community concerns over the height and density of the project convinced the developer to bring the towers down to 115 ft and 95 ft.

The project involves 406,000 sf, which includes 215 residential units, 334 parking spaces and ground-floor retail space. The 2.3-acre parcel is being leased from the city in a land disposition agreement that Baumann says will have to be refined in light of this recent approval.

Oliner’s connection with the Navy yard goes back to the 1970s when the city named his then-company, Immobilaire, the developer of four parcels in the complex. The company went bankrupt and returned one of the parcels back to the city but agreed that it would start development on the remaining three parcels by September of 2004. Baumann says that the other two parcels are zoned for biomedical us, but Oliner has not yet submitted any plans for those sites.