The plans to demolish the 1950s-era edifice at 100-110 West St. and replace it with a 189-unit, three-story, 188,000-square-foot apartment building were generally well received at a Sept. 16 Planning Board public hearing on the project.
Members of the public expressed concerns mostly about increased traffic and possible overflow parking spilling onto nearby residential streets. Planning Board members also expressed concern about how the operators will handle deliveries and pickups, but raised no major issues on the overall design and concept of the project.
The project is being proposed by Greystar, a South Carolina-based firm that manages and operates more than $300 billion of real estate in more than 250 markets worldwide, including several in Greater Boston.
The property is currently owned by Welltower, a real estate investment trust, which reportedly has agreed to sell it to Greystar conditioned upon town approval of the project.
This is the first major project in town governed by new zoning enacted under the MBTA Communities Act. The zoning changes have allowed the project to avoid the need for a special permit and instead allows it to proceed under the Planning Board’s less stringent site plan review process.
Under site plan review, the board can apply conditions to the permit, but those conditions must be related to site impacts. The board can consider stormwater and drainage impacts. It can dictate the location of entrances and exits, internal circulation of traffic, loading zones, landscaping and screening and some external traffic impacts, such as traffic signals and possible need for crosswalks, which was discussed at the hearing.
Traffic consultant Robert Michaud walked the board through the results of a traffic study that gathered its data in April and which Michaud said determined the project was a “modest traffic generator.”
Michaud said the study showed that during morning peak periods, the property would add less than one new vehicle per minute. During evening peak periods, the impact would be a bit greater, adding just over one vehicle per minute.
Overall, the project is anticipated to generate approximately 81 vehicle trips during the weekday morning peak hour, and 102 vehicle trips during the weekday evening peak hour. Daily trips are estimated at approximately 1,284 vehicles.
As for parking, under the new MBTA zoning the project is required to provide one parking space per unit, which is below the former 1.5 space per-unit requirement. Greystar is seeking a waiver to lower that requirement from 189 to 186 spaces to accommodate a town request for more open space at the site.
In its regulatory review of the project, the police department identified this as a potential issue, as did several residents who spoke at the hearing.
“As always, the parking is an issue with us,” Police Chief John Schlittler told the Planning Board via email Sept. 10.
“From other projects, Kendrick and Charles River Landing, we see the impact of parking on the street especially the overnight. The parking numbers of 189 apartments and 186 spaces plus staff seems very low to accommodate what is needed,” Schlittler wrote.
Greystar representatives said parking spaces would not be free to residents. They could lease parking spaces and would be able to lease more than one if spaces were available. Not every resident is expected to lease a space and they cited statistics from other properties they manage which show leasing rates between 60 and 90 percent of capacity.
Planning Board members and residents seemed dubious that the West Street project would have such low usage and worried about overflow parking by both residents and their guests causing problems, specifically on Morton Street, Mellen Street and Carey Road.
Carey Road resident Susan Herman raised the parking issue as well as multiple other concerns, including the possible loss of mature trees in a section of Needham that she says is one of the town’s more significant “hot spots.”
“It’s a beautiful building. We are excited about the project, but we believe large trees in the front of the building will soften the impact of the three stories,” Herman said.
“Retention of the large trees on site will make the sidewalk more walkable,” she said. “There is a need for larger trees than 2 inches in diameter and 4-foot planting beds.”
Mellen Street resident Frank Flynn, a Town Meeting member, expressed concern about the impact of the demolition of such a large structure, specifically about controlling dust and exacerbating what he says is an existing rat problem.
After nearly two hours the Board stopped taking comments and voted to continue the hearing at its next meeting Oct. 7.
Greystar attorney and Needham resident Tim Sullivan has expressed hope that the review can be completed in two meetings and that a permit can be obtained before the end of the year.
If so, construction could begin in early 2026 with the demolition of the building requiring three to four months. The expectation is that 40% of the units will be one-bedroom, 35% will be two-bedroom, 15% will be studios and 10% will be three-bedroom. Town zoning requires that 12.5% of the units be affordable.
If the permit process is successful and all goes according to schedule, tenants could begin moving in by the fall of 2027. Greystar reps said occupancy could start before the building is fully constructed.
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