Adding more choices to Dorchester

Developers are working to create upscale living and expand retail options in the diverse community

The Carruth residence units have interiors by Duffy Design Group and views of Boston's skyline or the Blue Hills. (Jonathan Wiggs / Globe Staff Photo)

Dorchester is a tough sell when it comes to luxury condominiums, and the sprawling Boston neighborhood is not accustomed to trendy restaurants and retails shops either.

But two developers at opposite ends of the diverse community are trying to bury the outside image of unsafe streets and rundown housing, exaggerated as it may be, and create upscale residences for young professionals who want to shop and dine just footsteps away from their front doors.

The Carruth - 74 income-restricted apartments that are already fully rented and 42 residential condominiums - is adjacent to the MBTA's Ashmont Station on the Red Line, and is virtually complete. It includes a ground-floor restaurant and extensive retail space.

North a few miles, Corcoran Jennison Cos., which has had a good quarter-century run of car shows and conventions at the Bayside Expo Center, is undertaking plans to rebuild on the waterfront acreage. Also next to a Red Line T station, the Corcoran redevelopment would include almost 2 million square feet of 21st century neighborhood development.

A new Bayside neighborhood would feature 950 residences, 285,000 square feet of retail space with a supermarket, 300,000 square feet of office use, and expansion of an existing Doubletree Club Boston-Bayside hotel.

Though the two projects are at opposite stages of development - one virtually done, the other just taking shape - the owners in both cases want "Dorchester" to convey notions of a lively neighborhood like the South End - or at least South Boston.

At the Bayside location, Corcoran Jennison's plans may include a specialty foods store like Trader Joe's, an alternative to the larger Shaw's supermarket on the other side of Morrissey Boulevard.

"You don't have this kind of retail in Dorchester right now," said Joseph J. Corcoran, president of Corcoran Jennison. "It's uphill but doable."

Owners of big box stores have inquired about locating on Bayside's 27 acres fronting Dorchester Bay, seeking to make it something of an extension of nearby South Bay Center.

"But we want to do something better," said Corcoran. "We're trying to create a great place - with every reason why these residents want to be here."

South along Dorchester Avenue, the challenge is similar.

"Anybody who wants a nice loaf of bread has to get in their car," said Vincent A. Droser, vice president of development for Trinity Financial Inc., which developed the Carruth. That will be fixed if Trinity finds a specialty wine and foods store to lease one of its retail spaces, next to the unusual but trendy combo of a Wainwright Bank & Trust Co. branch and Flat Black Coffee Co., which themselves are sharing ground-floor space in the complex.

But though Trinity has rented all the apartments at the Carruth, it has not sold a single one of the moderately priced condo units.

"We've got to get through this cycle," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "That's a great neighborhood that's changed dramatically over the last several years."

Dorchester has been hard hit by both the slow real estate market and the subprime mortgage crisis. It has among the largest number of foreclosures of any neighborhood in the state. Meantime, sales, particularly of condos, have plunged. There were just 111 units sold in the first quarter this year, compared to 230 in the same period last year, and the median condo price has dipped to $263,000, from $275,000, according to the Warren Group.

Trinity recently dropped prices by 20 percent or so - from the $270,000-$450,000 range to between $219,000 and $399,000. At those prices, and with interiors by Duffy Design Group, bathrooms appointed in Crema Marfil marble, and views of Boston's skyline or the Blue Hills from spacious windows, units are starting to move, according to Jim Keefe, president of Trinity.

In the three weeks since prices were lowered, four people have put down deposits on units.

The Carruth, located on land leased from the MBTA and named after a section of Dorchester, was designed by the Architectural Team of Boston.

Perhaps the main stumbling block to sales has nothing to do with Dorchester - it's just a tough market regionwide for residences and condos. Adding to Trinity's frustrations big time, though, is a T station in a state of construction chaos, as the Ashmont station is being completely rebuilt. A T spokeswoman said work is not scheduled to be completed until next summer.

It should be merely a matter of time before the Ashmont neighborhood becomes desirable. Already drawing from other neighborhoods is the nearby Ashmont Grille, whose owner in July is opening Tavolo, a pizza and pasta restaurant, in the Carruth, with 100 seats.

Both projects, located adjacent to MBTA stations, consider themselves "transit-oriented development," whose residents would be less dependent on automobiles than those in most in new residential complexes.

The Bayside project is considerably larger and a few years away, but Corcoran Jennison hopes to break ground in 2009 on the first phase, which will include 300 apartment units, half of the office space, and almost all of the retail space - for about 50 shops and restaurants.

"We want to create the destination, then follow up with the housing when the market's there," said Corcoran. About 2,800 parking spaces are planned.

The last 650 units of housing - rental or ownership condos yet to be determined - will be built near the park on the bay in buildings of some scale, tentatively 20 floors at the tallest and 5 to 10 floors closest to the water. The architect is Street-Works LLC of White Plains, N.Y., which has done similar projects in California and Maryland.

Corcoran Jennison is currently in dispute with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which has long had plans to build an odor dispersion building over a new storm water drain running adjacent to Bayside. Corcoran Jennison fears that the current design of the facility could lead to emissions of foul odors over its new neighborhood.

The parties are discussing a compromise that would place most of the equipment underground. A city master plan for the entire Columbia Point area is expected to be completed by fall.

Bayside Expo Center was built in the mid-1960s as an urban mall, with the old Zayre and Thom McCan stores, but the neighborhood wasn't ready for retail yet and it never quite clicked.

"It's kind of reverting back to what it was originally," said Corcoran.

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.