Sky-high student housing
THE GRANDMARC building proposed for the back half of the YMCA complex on Huntington Avenue would represent an unusual form of housing -- an independent dormitory. Yet it would be too big for the site and perhaps too unconventional for this crowded, student-filled neighborhood. The Boston Redevelopment Authority, which will issue its first formal reaction to the proposal today, should tell the developer to rethink the project.
Phoenix Property Company of Dallas, which leads the development team, has built or is contracting GrandMarc complexes near five other US campuses. They are designed for college and graduate students, but without the rules and supervision of a dormitory.
None of the earlier projects is as big as the one proposed for the site between Huntington Avenue and St. Botolph Street. It would squeeze as many as 1,140 tenants into a 34-story, 245-foot tower on a site limited to a 90-foot height by the city zoning code.
The city has granted an exemption to Northeastern University for a 220-foot tower a few blocks down Huntington Avenue. This is part of a well-designed complex to help transform the university from a commuter school into a residential campus.
Jason Runnels, a Phoenix executive, said GrandMarc is intended to meet the strong demand for off-campus housing in the area. "If it were my children, I'd rather have them living in a professionally managed building for students than a brownstone that is not managed," he said in an interview.
There's much to be said for getting students into housing designed for them. But the BRA needs to ask: Who should build it?
Northeastern would rather be the one to do so. "We view the GrandMarc proposal as a potential impediment to the harmony of the existing campus as well as recently approved future development projects," said Daniel Bourque, a university vice president, in a letter to the BRA. Northeastern plans to build a 600-student dorm across St. Botolph Street from the proposed GrandMarc. It had wanted to put a 475-bed dorm on the GrandMarc site, but was turned down by the YMCA.
The BRA can't force the YMCA to sell to any particular builder. But the agency has to recognize that Northeastern, the dominant development force in the area, has worked hard to create good relations with neighbors. The university will be better able to keep students out of mischief if they are in a dorm, instead of GrandMarc or other private housing.
Runnels resisted the idea of downsizing the project. "We have a land price that needs to be justified," he said, but wouldn't reveal it. The BRA comments today will continue a long process of neighborhood reaction and governmental review. GrandMarc has to get smaller. And if the project becomes uneconomical, Northeastern and perhaps other campuses in the area will surely fill the housing gap.
