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Newmarket Square could get self-storage aimed at restaurants and people who have more wine than they know what to do with
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By adamg on Sat, 11/23/2024 - 11:05am
A self-storage company says it wants to convert a hulking six-story records-storage warehouse at 120-134 Hampden St. into a hulking six-story self-storage complex that would include a climate-controlled place for people to store wine until they're ready to sell or drink it.
Bahlmann Capital Group of Brookline says, in a letter of intent filed with the Boston Planning Department, that in addition to the new stuff-and-wine self storage, it would put up a smaller, two-story building on what is now a small paved area at the corner of Hampden Street and Norfolk Avenue, with retail space on the first floor and office space on the second. This, the company says, "would better activate the street corner."
This proposal will need both Planning Department and Zoning Board of Appeal approval because the change of use applies to what is considered a "large" project, in this case, 66,993 square feet in the existing building, and because while general "warehousing" is an allowed use under the site's zoning, zoning-board OK is required for the change to the more specific self-storage type of warehousing.
The proposed 434-square-foot wine room would not be Boston's first wine self-storage facility. A former wine-and-cheese shop at 1356 Commonwealth Avenue in Allston now includes space used by Wine Storage of Boston, with rates starting at $109 a month for a locker that can hold 36 cases of wine.
International Wine Vault, with locations in Framingham and Stoughton, offers similar service, as well as a special "wine emergency number" for after-hours wine crises.
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Comments
Housing would be a much better fit
How can storage possibly be financially feasible for this project?
This area could benefit so much from housing!
the costs are different
Housing requires things like windows, plumbing, and electrical outlets in all the apartments. A storage unit will have lights throughout the building, but probably no outlets.
Assuming
What would it cost to tear this existing asbestos laden building down, and put up market rate apartments. How many?
What sort of impact is the solid waste facility across the street going to have on those apartments? On the view? On the ability to have open windows when there is an easterly breeze....?
Think before you dream for the rest of us.
Yes I agree, but in Boston
Yes I agree, but in Boston housing gets much more pushback than anything else from NIMBYs and hysterical politicians like Flynn.
@Anon Hampden street has been
@Anon Hampden street has been a storage/construction/junk yard area since the 1960s. I know there a a few house on the street now and the people that live their are probably happy to have somewhere to live but it's not exactly the garden spot of our dear city.
Who's drinking all that wine?
Who's drinking all that wine? Boy, rich or poor, humans love alcohol. But alcohol doesn't love everyone.
A new school is being built
A new school is being built across from an old existing BPS school feet away from this new proposed wine storage and also the epi center for Mass and Cass. Another BPS school would be directly across the street from the storage vault. It’s already a distillery and another bar within a block of these schools. A storage vault for wine would serve a better purpose in another area.
new storage user in an
new storage user in an existing warehouse, not a new warehouse building.
Going from storage use to... storage use.
Weirdly, that is exactly what it is zoned for and has approvals for... already!
Reading is fundamental.
That seems like a reach
"Wine storage" doesn't mean wine serving. If alcohol stays in the bottle, how does it affect school children any more than a bottle of water?
For the bougie crowd who is
For the bougie crowd who is going to store their precious wine there, the journey through the last few blocks of that neighborhood will be half the fun.
Then they will be able to regal their dinner party guests with heroic tales of driving their shiny Lexus or Volvo SUV through the Mass and Cass area to retrieve their $650 bottle of preciously aged Bordeaux.
Great Story
Stereotype much?
I know a few people in the South End who will rent these units and they don't hold the perceived thoughts you have about what they think of Mass and Cass.
On the upside, my buddies in Hingham will now have more room in their cellars when the South End friends put their wine into Hampden Street.
Win / Win.