More apartments for Gano Street
Community Garden news: Site Specific is going; a 4-story apartment building is coming.
Photo Peter Phipps
A Massachusetts developer, Lundgren Equity Partners, intends to build a 54-unit apartment building with 54 parking space at Gano and Power Streets.
Under a new state law, Lundgren’s plan for a four-story building next to the Fox Point Community Garden does not need approval of the city Planning Commission.
It can proceed with the project “by right,” because, by design, the developer has not requested a zoning change.
As an alternative to a public hearing, Lundgren executives will present their plan to the public at the Sept. 9 meeting of the Fox Point Neighborhood Assn. The Zoom address will be sent to newsletter subscribers Sept. 6.
Mark Rapp, the project’s architect, said the Planning Commission urged the developer to reach out to the neighborhood association. Because there is no requirement for a public hearing, “we’re coming on our own,” Rapp said.
The meeting will start at 7 p.m. Lundgren executives will make a presentation and then answer questions.
Lundgren bought the 141 Gano Street site in 2022 from Site Specific, a construction management company. In addition to taking down the Site Specific offices, the project would also raze the Wild Card Tattoo collective next door.
The 4-story building will have studio, 1 and 2-bedroom apartments. Half will feature decks overlooking the community garden with views of Gano Park and the Seekonk.
On its website, Lundgren, based in Auburn, Ma., highlights 27 New England commercial and residential properties including six in Worcester, two in Woonsocket and 55 Pine Street in Providence.
“I hope that Fox Point supports our project,” Lundgren partner Tyler Alten said in an email.
The site is across Power Street from a three-quarters of an acre excavation where Bahman Jalili, a developer with a number of projects in Fox Point, is putting up four, separate buildings with 133 units and just 68-70 parking places.
That’s close to the number of spaces Lundgren is planning for 54 units— not 133 units.
Rapp, who is also Jalili’s architect, said the zoning law allows the bigger project to have less parking because the design is for four buildings on four lots, each with less than 10,000 square feet.
In contrast, Lundgren is planning one building on a site with more than 10,000 square feet. So, Rapp said, the law requires Lundgren to provide a parking space for each unit.
