A controversial plan for affluent senior housing in the South End has been put on hold as the institute that owns the property seeks a new buyer for the existing and potential buildings.
41 Berkeley Street once housed Franklin Cummings Tech, formerly known as the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, and is now up for purchase again through global real estate broker Colliers. The 1.2-acre site whose new listing touts an “affluent demographic base in a supply constrained market,” was previously slated for development by real estate firm Related Beal.
The communications firm Denterlein, speaking on behalf of the school, told The Boston Guardian in a statement that Related Beal is no longer moving forward with the project.
“As the market has changed, Franklin Cummings Tech, the city of Boston, and Related Beal engaged in extensive discussions about revising the redevelopment plan for 41 Berkeley Street,” it said. “Unfortunately, despite those efforts, the parties could not agree on a viable business plan that would allow the project to move forward in its current form. As a result, Related Beal has decided not to proceed with the purchase of our South End campus.”
The listing still includes preapproved plans for a new building, the 2022 passage of which ignited a firestorm when its owners and the Boston Planning Department (PD) ended public review and pushed the proposal to a board vote over the objections of some local stakeholders.
“There was a lot of pressure in the system to move this along at the PD level even though at the community level there were lots of remaining questions,” Steve Fox, head of the South End Forum, said.
“We begged the PD and the owners, wrote a letter to the mayor, asking for more time to discuss this project and its implications. And they basically ignored us.”
Originally slated to be affordable housing for the neighborhood’s older residents, while public meetings were on hold during the pandemic the project changed into 200 assisted living condos running up to $9,500 a month each.
Some members of the Impact Advisory Group (IAG) were given the impression the reason the city cut off discussion and moved to a vote was that Franklin Cummings Tech was relying on the money to fund its move to Roxbury, but according to Denterlein the college was able to find bridge financing through grants and loans once it became clear that Related Beal wouldn’t be moving forward.
While that relocation is progressing, with construction slated to be completed this fall and classes starting spring, 2026, Denterlein President Diana Pisciotta said selling the properties was still important for the long-term health of the school.
“We’ve identified sources of bridge financing that will allow us to move forward. [Selling the buildings] remains important to the long-term financial health and sustainability of the institution,” she said.
Pisciotta also contested the notion that public review happened quickly, noting that the review process went on for several years before a vote.
Franklin Cummings Tech itself gave only a short statement for this article, reading, “In collaboration with our banking partners and philanthropic donors, we were able to secure bridge funding to manage the gap between the sale of our current building and the launch of the new building in Nubian Square.”
Related Beal does still list the 41 Berkeley Street property online as one of its holdings, but it did not respond to a request for comment on this article.
Fox’s primary concern at this point was that if the property is acquired by a new developer, those mitigation promises could go out the window along with any part of the existing plan. While the new listing does outline the existing proposal for an assisted living facility with accompanying community spaces and improvements, a new buyer could easily ignore the preapproved plan and start moving a new proposal through public review.
“It’s very typical in the development community to have a big push to get everything approved and then the existing developer or a new one will say, ‘Well we’ve taken a look at the old project. It’s a couple years old and market conditions have changed. We want to change it,’” Fox said.
“A lot of the agreements forged by the original IAG were assurances that there would be community space, affordable space. All of those original agreements now are subject to change of use applications now that it’s been sold to someone else. The whole package of agreements suddenly unravels.”
