Real Estate Today: MBTA parcel for sale again

FOREST HILLS—An MBTA parcel across the street from Forest Hills Station is up for bid again after several developers “expressed strong interest” in it, according to MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo. Bidding opened earlier this month and will be open through Oct. 24.

Parcel U, encompassing about 2.8 acres, is one of a handful of parcels that the T has been trying to sell, with limited success, since 2007. It is bounded by Hyde Park Avenue on the west and Ukraine Way on the north. It extends just south of Walk Hill Street.

The parcel was originally priced at $1.1 million. The price was lowered earlier this year, but the parcel still received no bids. It is now priced at $995,000.

The MBTA is also giving the bidder an additional three months to obtain the permits necessary for the project, for a total of 18 months.

“Since the previous offering [earlier this year], the MBTA has been approached by a number of project developers who have expressed strong interest in the parcel,” Pesaturo told the Gazette last week.

The Forest Hills Improvement Initiative (FHII) Use and Design Guidelines, completed in 2008, dictate that Parcel U should house locally-supportive businesses such as hardware stores, bookstores or dry cleaners.

It also states that 4,000 square feet should be set aside for community use, such as a day care facility. It further asks for 150 housing units, half of which should be affordable; 130 residential parking spaces; and for 30,000 square feet, or 24 percent of the parcel’s area, to be left as open space.

Two different MBTA lots, located on Washington Street south of Ukraine Way and subject to the same FHII guidelines, were sold in 2009 and are being developed under the name Arboretum Place. A new Harvest Co-op Market and a bank are slated to open there in December.

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