Big hopes for Ashmont
Carruth project seen as a catalyst
The scene at the Ashmont MBTA station in Dorchester might be called choreographed chaos.
Fifteen bus lines still feed the station, but with the entire area now a hard-hat construction site, bus stops have been forced onto Dorchester Avenue. T patrons crowd the sidewalks, while cars pick their way down the clogged street and buses do U-turns in Peabody Square.
Construction workers swarm the remains of the old T station, where a new one is rising. Still more workers are inside the frame of a six-story residential and retail building, to be called the Carruth, going up on the same site as the T station.
Out of this upheaval could come the rebirth of a neighborhood, according to local activists, officials, and the principal developer of the site.
The station and the Carruth, due to be completed in January, will have a bank and two restaurants on the first floor. At a cost of $100 million combined, it is one of the largest public-private investments ever in Dorchester. Local leaders hope the complex will become an anchor for the surrounding neighborhood.
"This is going to be an active urban street front," said Vincent A. Droser, project manager of the Carruth and vice president of Trinity Financial, the developer.
State Representative Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester said, "This is a different face of Dorchester. People hear about violence in Dorchester, but there are a lot of good things happening."
The neighborhoods in the Ashmont area are diverse in both income and race. There are stately Victorians, rows of triple deckers, and modest single-family homes.
In and around Peabody Square is a small business district, which received a boost in 2005 with the reopening of the Ashmont Grill, a fashionable restaurant that draws customers from a wide area.
Crime has long been a concern in Ashmont. Last year, there were 24 serious crimes at the station, including one rape, according to MBTA data.
Droser said the new development will discourage illicit activities, whereas the old station was a disjointed structure with hidden areas that facilitated crime.
The Carruth will have 72 apartments for people with low and moderate incomes and 42 market-rate condominiums on the top two floors. The first floor is to have a coffee shop and an Italian bistro, to be owned by Chris Douglass, proprietor of the Ashmont Grill.
"There was some concern about the size of the building, but it looks like it's going to settle in very nicely," said Vicki Rugo, a member of the Ashmont Hill Association board of directors and a 32-year resident of the neighborhood.
Bill Richard, president of the city's Main Street revitalization organization in Peabody Square, said the project can be a catalyst. "We hope it will bring more redevelopment."
Also in the works is a city redesign of the roads and streetscape at Peabody Square, expected to begin in late 2008.
Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com. 
