Developers of proposed Herald Street apartment building want to cut size in half - but say they will increase total number of affordable units

The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Beacon Communities yesterday asked the Boston Planning Department to let them shrink the size of a proposed apartment building at 50 Herald St. in the South End - where the C-Mart is now - from 313 to 115 or 120 apartments.

But, the non-profit and the developer say, the smaller building would consist entirely of affordable apartments rented to people making no more than 80% of the Boston-area median income. The original, larger proposal - submitted by the association and a different developer - would have had about 81 affordable units.

The revised plans for the three-quarter-acre site show no parking for residents. The original plans for the larger building called for 120 parking spaces in an underground garage.

The building would have 12,000 to 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and community space, with the commercial space possibly offered to C-Mart. In 2022, the association initially signaled it would sue C-Mart to force it to move, but then never actually served the grocery store with a copy of its complaint, and a judge dismissed the case six months later.

The building would be the second in a three-building complex along Herald Street, Washington Street and Shawmut Avenue originally approved in 2018.

The proposed building would be all electric, with no gas hookups.

50 Herald St. notice of project change and information on how to comment.