An Old Boston Building That Isn't Slated for Development? Weird

From Dave Brigham:

I spill a LOT of pretend ink at this blog talking about the hot development market in Boston and nearby cities, and how that activity crosses paths with the preservation movement. I forget sometimes that changing the landscape of a city, whether by knocking down old buildings or updating and renovating them, takes time, and that sometimes things don't work out.

I recently walked through yet another part of the city that I'd never explored: SoWa, short for South of Washington. This neighborhood is known as an artist/hipster haven. I definitely need to walk around here more, but in the meantime, let's talk about a small slice of East Berkeley Street, between Washington Street and Harrison Avenue.

We're looking at 140-148 East Berkeley Street, a 40,000-square-foot building erected in 1932 as a parking garage, which was used in subsequent years as a storage facility. I think at some point there was an idea to convert it, of course, to condos, and I believe at that point it was no longer used for storage. It is located next to a pleasant apartment building, and across from boutique condos the Dover Lofts, as well as legendary bar J.J. Foley's (Est. 1909). Do yourself a favor and click on that Foley's link and check out the photo of the bar with the old elevated Orange Line station in the background. I would have loved to live around Boston when that part of the transportation system was coming down....

The aforementioned pleasant apartment building, the Lofts at East Berkeley, is one among many in the South End catering to folks with a little bit of change in their pockets going jing-a-ling-a-ling. I'm not sure who owns 140-148 East Berkeley, but the folks who operate Ming’s/New York Market around the corner on Washington Street over the summer sought a change of occupancy for the property in order to use it for storage of food and grocery products, per an online report from The Boston Sun.

I'm not sure of the status of that request with the City of Boston, but neighbors weren't happy with the market's petition.

"Sources have told the Sun now and in the past that the building has been used as a warehouse already by the market illegally for some time," per a recent article. "Multiple people have said the market may have been slaughtering animals in the old building to sell in the market. They have also been believed to have stored livestock in the building as well."

For those reasons and others, many in the neighborhood wanted the City to turn down the market's request. I have to imagine that before too long a developer will convert, add onto or tear down and replace this building.

Yes, that's a model ship in the window.

The market is on the outskirts of Chinatown. For more on that neighborhood, see July 31, 2019, "Won't You Take Me to...Chinatown?"