Pemberton Market to be demolished and rebuilt

[ron_newman]

I received the following announcment from a Porter Square mailing list. Note that this is the "old" Pemberton Market at Mass. Ave. and Rindge Ave., not the "new" Pemberton Farms at Mass. Ave. and Day Street.

North Cambridge Stabilization Committee will address this project at their August 9 meeting. (2050 Mass. Ave, 7 to 9PM)
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The property owners hope to demolish the one-story Pemberton Market & Liquors building and replace it with a four-story structure that includes enclosed parking for 15 vehicles. The retail market would occupy the new ground-floor storefront, and the upper floors would consist of 15 one- and two-bedroom condominiums.

Consultant Linda Haar (formerly chief planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority) will join us to present the proposal and take questions and comments. As currently envisioned, the project would be denser in terms of the number of condos, more massive in terms of floor space and height setbacks, and taller than city zoning regulations allow without a hardship variance.
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Here's a link to the project Web site, which is still under construction.

http://www.pembertoncorner.com/

Comments

[beezy515.livejournal.com]

In general, I would agree with you, but the parking access would be very close to the corner. Since three streets come together at this point, Pemberton Street is already a bottleneck without the addition of 15 additional cars, all coming from the same driveway early in the morning, each turning the same direction onto a one-way street, right at the same time the Pepsi truck pulls up to make its morning delivery to the market. As it is now, an 18-wheeler (many often make deliveries) takes up almost the entire front or side of the building when it's parked, so I don't know how anyone would be able to pull in or out of their parking space while a delivery is being made. Since Pemberton is a one-way street, the trucks often have to make a k-turn from Mass. Ave and back into the space on Pemberton. And believe me, the store receives alot of deliveries.

I'm not saying that this should doom the project, I'm just saying that the space is much tighter and more problematic than it first appears.