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Developer wins approval for wicked big single-family home at North End gateway
By adamg on Tue, 02/28/2023 - 3:02pm
The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved developer Salvatore Lupoli's plans to convert the old Traffic Tunnel Administration building on North Street just off the Greenway into his new home: A 6,700-square-foot manse with five bedrooms, a gymnasium, a rec room with a pool table and a rooftop deck surrounding the building's pergola.
When MassDOT, which inherited the building - which includes a former Boston police station, decided to sell it off, Lupoli put in the winning bid, for $3.75 million. The property changed hands in 2021.
The outdoor grounds, which include an old turnpike toll booth from the western part of the state, remain MassDOT property and open to the public, Lupoli's attorney, Jeff Drago, told the board. Lupoli will have an easement to use the land to walk into and out of the building's column-covered front entrance, which overlooks the Greenway. Drago said Lupoli will not make any changes to the exterior of the building.
Lupoli needed to go before the zoning board in part because single-family homes are so rare in the North End - while he could have turned the building into apartments or condos by right, the lot's zoning requires board approval for single-family homes.
Lupoli does much of his work in the Merrimack Valley, but he told the board his new house will be a sort of homecoming for him - he was born in East Boston.
Elected officials supported the proposal, as did the neighboring North Bennet Street School, although school President Sarah Turner said she wishes the building could have remained a public building.
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Comments
Cue the blimp.
Cue the blimp that reads “The World Is Yours”.
A single family "Mansion" in
A single family "Mansion" in the North End? Truly "The World Is His".
We need to ban SF housing or
We need to ban SF housing or at least make it more difficult to build them and easier for multifamily units to be built.
In this area, a huge single
In this area, a huge single family actually cuts down on traffic and garbage and everything else. Better than shoehorning a 6 story condo building with 38 units on to this postage stamp of a parcel.
Do you honestly think this guy isn’t …
… going to create a lot of garbage with his conspicuous consumption and displays of status? I fail to see how a wealthy household will not affect traffic in an area where many residents do not even own cars and who often use public transportation, bikes or their own two feet.
It's the North End???
Building a 6 story condo building with 38 units and ZERO parking spaces sounds ideal for this spot. It's the North End, you don't need a car to live here.
I'd be for the city doing a lil eminent domain-ing here, seizing the property (for the price it was sold at plus some interest) and putting in a 6-10 story housing unit. You could even use the proceeds from the rezoning/resale to cover up that gross bit of exposed highway and put a new park in.
Registered
Are there are other buildings on the national register of historic places you'd like to see torn down and replaced with janky developer modernism?
I couldn’t agree more.
I couldn’t agree more, jen.
I’m at least glad to see that the outdoor space remains open to the public and not walled off to create a pleasure garden or private parking spaces or a helicopter pad or for this far too entitled person.
oh don't you worry
They will do this. It'll take a few years.. let the hoopla die down and magically it becomes walled off or a parking lot. Just wait.. entitled are gonna entitle.
Agreed.
It’s the likely outcome eventually. Money talks bullshit walks.
What’s a pleasure garden?
Sounds wonderful and I’d like to install one at my new house.
I have a pleasure garden
well thats what I call when I have some.. ahem... self care alone time.
Lol!
It’s a place for experiencing whatever your pleasure might be, bubeleh.
It's like a stately pleasure dome
But without a building permit.
We need to ban the name Jen or
at least make it more difficult for parents to name their kids that. This statement is about as dumb as the one you posted.
IIRC, there’s a gigantic
IIRC, there’s a gigantic parking garage a few blocks away that “we” are trying to prevent being turned into multifamily housing. The BRA owned fulton street parking lot would seem to present a great opportunity to replace a surface parking lot close to the T and next to the greenway with multifamily housing. Once the BRA is dismantled, of course. I’m just glad to see that old tunnel building real estate being put back on the tax rolls after decades. I’m sure the property taxes alone will more than cover what services this single family uses from the city, with more than a bit left over to spend on the hoi polloi.
Please make this an Airbnb
I would search for pennies under the couch to pay for a night of debauchery at this refurbished spot.
Wait, how much of the building?
Because the whole building is well more than 6700 sf. The building is about 90 by 100 feet, with three floors. Is he only getting part of the building? Or is he getting 27,000 sf?
Link to measured outline:
https://tinyurl.com/4s7uphue
It's just part of the building
I'm pretty sure it's just this parcel with the Cross St end of the building. The rest is the North Bennett Street School https://app01.cityofboston.gov/AssessingMap/?find=0303307000
Thanks
That makes a lot more sense. It looks like the dividing line is at that bump-out past the set of three side windows and the side door in this image.
https://goo.gl/maps/FDkTmJUEFJ7XvfPq5
When you go to google maps and pick up the little yellow guy, you can see dozens of images available from inside the North Bennet Street School, but none forward of that line.
That makes it around 2300 sf per floor, which is in line with the description. On the other side, there are garage doors:
https://goo.gl/maps/oikdTYcMt8PAxLi39
But I don't think they'll be allowed to use them as such, because they'd have to drive over the bricks. On the other hand, they won't be able to remove them, either. Historic garage doors!
As for banning single-family housing, only silly people would suggest such a thing. Almost 20% of the housing in Boston is single-family, either detached or, as in this case, attached. If some poor, unfortunate city were to succeed at that, only two outcomes would be possible:
1. All existing single-family houses would be grandfathered, and thus become much more valuable, or
2. Everybody currently living in a single-family house would move away, and the tax base would collapse.
My money's on outcome 1. If Jen is allowed to make law, she will make Salvatore Lupoli richer.
"If some poor, unfortunate city were to succeed at that,..."
That would be a suburb @Sock_Puppet. Some suburbs sprawl out to be as big as small cities though.
For now...
Wait 'til Mr. Pizza complains about the noise and buys the whole block.
It's just part of the building
It's just the Cross Street end of the building. This parcel https://app01.cityofboston.gov/AssessingMap/?find=0303307000
Are there plans to use the
Are there plans to use the toolbooth building for anything? Seems like someone could run a business out of there.
Lemonade stand?
Or duck boat tickets?
it's close to the waterfront
after all the condo conversions and gentrification we sure could use a whorehouse for the seafarers. I thought that's what the Zoning Code meant when it refers to an Overlay District. Hello Sailor. Come on over.
I'd like a fried clam shack
I'd like a fried clam shack myself. Not that I go to the North End at all but if there were a good fried clam shack there I'd be there every other weekend. Clams with bellies though. Clam strips do not count.
200 years ago
You either lived in a single family home or you lived in a tenement, whether on Beacon Hill, East Boston, Dorchester or Roxbury. People in single family houses wanted a yard, green open spaces, privacy and parking. Nothing wrong with that today.