By Michael Coughlin Jr.
During a public meeting hosted by the Planning Department earlier this week, attendees heard plans from Allandale Farm at 259 Allandale Street to replace its existing retail structure and its Boston retail greenhouses in hopes of modernizing operations and becoming more efficient. As part of the proposal, Allandale Farm, which has been in operation for more than 150 years and has had a retail component for over 60 years, would replace its existing retail structure with an approximately 5,300-square-foot retail market barn and older retail greenhouses with a new, approximately 5,350-square-foot retail greenhouse. Further, the presentation during the meeting highlighted that the new retail market barn would be the headquarters for all retail operations and that the new retail greenhouse would enable the farm to meet demand and sell plants year-round.
“We started this commercial farm in the 1960s and have used facilities that we inherited that were built back in the 1920s—they are definitely in need of improvement— we are very excited about our new market barn and retail greenhouse as they enable us to be more efficient, to be open year-round for our customers and to continue to help us to save this wonderful piece of land,” said Edward Lawrence, an Owner and Founder of Allandale Farm. Helen Glotzer, Allandale Farm’s CEO and President, discussed the facility’s need for upgrades. For example, she outlined how the existing retail store is looking to modernize in the simplest ways, such as adding heating, cooling, and even walls.
“For our staff’s comfort, for our customer’s comfort, for the quality of the product that we’re bringing to you, this improved store is going to just go such a long way to us being able to do what we do even better,” said Glotzer, who indicated that the new retail structure would be in the same area the existing one is now. Glotzer also explained that this proposal would help increase store accessibility for drivers and pedestrians. She highlighted improvements in organization and safety through the planned store layout and the separation of operations and retail. “Right now, when you come to the farm, if there’s a delivery, it’s happening out in the customer parking lot, so we’re being very careful and thoughtful about having a back of the house so that we can separate those operations from the front of the house,” she said. As the presentation progressed, the floor was eventually turned over to Kaki Martin of Klopfer Martin Design Group, the project’s landscape architect, who provided more information on the proposal. While providing an overview of the site plan, Martin said the farm crosses jurisdictions into Brookline.
Though this week’s meeting focused on the abovementioned upgrades in the Boston area, she briefly mentioned that improvements are proposed to the east and west bay pits and the cider house on the Brookline portion of the land. Concerning the Boston plan, which includes the new market barn and greenhouse, Martin indicated that the parking lot would remain in its current location, have the same entry and exit areas, and be upgraded with ADA spaces. “The parking lot is really being sort of organized and made more safe, better for stormwater, the surfaces, et cetera, so in all ways, we’re working on accessibility, safety, and also navigating stormwater regulations and improving the collection of the stormwater on-site,” said Martin. Further, Martin discussed plans for a crosswalk on Allandale Street, which would take you through the new parking lot to another crosswalk and into what is referred to as the outdoor marketplace between the parking lot’s edge and the new buildings. Later, Joe Haskett, the project architect of Union Studio Architecture & Community Design, Inc., spoke about building architecture and incorporating sustainability and some history into more contemporary designs. Eventually, the floor was opened for attendees to comment and ask questions.
As the question-and-answer portion of the meeting progressed, many attendees expressed their support for the proposal. Additionally, there were some questions. For example, one attendee had asked about a potential cafe at the site. Glotzer noted that a commercial kitchen is part of the proposal but indicated that a cafe is not currently in the plans. However, they are excited about the idea and could potentially examine it in the future. A question about the new parking lot was also raised concerning whether it could handle a potential customer increase. Barry Fogel of Keegan Werlin, LLP, the project’s legal counsel, mentioned that the number of spots in the parking lot would not change very much, but efficiency would improve because spaces would be marked.
He also indicated there would be room for 58 vehicles. Glotzer also emphasized that efficiency will be improved by having designated areas for deliveries and other back-of-house functions. “Sometimes the spaces that we have out there now are being used for things that aren’t customer vehicles, and because we have to sort of double purpose them, and that will be much less of the case moving forward,” she said. Other topics, such as plans for new trees, were discussed, and Fogel mentioned that the hope for construction, following various permit approvals, is to begin at the end of this year. For more information about the project, visit its webpage at https://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects/259-allandale-street. The current comment period for the project closes on March 3rd. You can make comments using the link above or by emailing [email protected].