West Roxbury landlord formally files plans for apartment building on Lagrange Street

Michael Argiros of Charles River Realty today filed a formal request with the BRA to let him replace the increasingly decrepit old asthma-inhaler factory he now owns on Lagrange Street with a $10-million, 48-unit apartment building with 81 parking spaces.

Argiros, who bought the closed factory only a couple weeks before it became a fire-ravaged closed factory, originally proposed 62 apartments and 52 parking spaces, but decreased the former and increased the latter to try to appease furiously outraged neighbors.

Six of the apartments will be marketed as affordable.

In his application, his architects write:

While West Roxbury is known primarily as a neighborhood of single family homes, the Project will provide housing options for singles and new families hoping to enter this limited sub-urban market and to do so without the need to own an automobile and for West Roxbury native empty nesters looking to down-size but remain in the neighborhood. The site has an advantageous location along a major arterial with direct access to the local shopping district and current retail uses along Centre Street. The multi-family building also supports the general objectives established by the Smart Growth Policies advocated by the City and the Commonwealth. The style and density reinforces the viability of the Centre Street “Main Street” corridor allowing the development’s residents direct pedestrian access to the adjacent community oriented retail.

The Project will be built to a height and mass that is in keeping with the existing building occupying the site and the adjacent institutional and commercial properties found along Centre Street. The result will be a residential development that will contribute to the life and vitality of the Centre Street/Main Street Shopping District and the West Roxbury Neighborhood.

Argiros says he will work with the city on re-timing the lights at Lagrange and Centre to improve the traffic flow there - even though his traffic engineer says the project will mean minimal impact on traffic.

In addition to BRA approval, Argiros will also need permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

425 Lagrange small-project review application (4.4M PDF).