Plan for MIT’s empty triple-decker in Central, due to be affordable units, awaits assessment
Massachusetts Institute of Technology property at 882 Main St. is seen Saturday from Massachusetts Avenue. (Photo: Tyler Motes)
An assessment of a long-empty triple-decker in Lafayette Square is expected to be complete within a couple of months, leading to a plan on its conversion into affordable housing for families, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology official said.
The apartment building at 882 Main St. (the city’s Assessment Department knows it as 884 Main St.) has been kept sealed up and empty for years by MIT despite its prime location overlooking Jill Brown-Rhone Park, but the school announced in October 2019 that it would be given to the city as affordable housing.
Not long afterward, the coronavirus pandemic arrived, while the school’s real estate arm has been focused on redeveloping the Volpe parcel in Kendall Square and a massive overhaul of properties stretching from Kendall to Area II. “Those are probably the two factors: a lot of projects going on, and Covid,” said Sarah Gallop, co-director at the Office of Government and Community Relations at MIT during an April 23 call.
The state of the building, which went up in 1900 and is called in overall “poor” condition by assessors, is a complication.
“What we’re doing is trying to decide if any of the building can be saved – its condition is not strong, but it’s not completely dilapidated, either,” Gallop said.
Every option is on the table so far, from maintaining the structure to razing it and rebuilding, Gallop said, with the possibility for expansion to add units just as unknown. It can now hold six to eight units. “We don’t know the answer to that yet. Really anything is possible right now, because we’re still working through its condition,” she said of the building.
The city needs to be consulted as well, because how development will be handled between the city and MIT also awaits the end of the property assessment. “We haven’t established the rules yet for who’s doing what,” Gallop said. “We’ll work with the city to finally be able to say, ‘Okay, here’s the plan.’”
Come on, this is Cambridge, so we know how this will play out. The city will spend a boatload of money to tear this down and overbuild, with the long delayed opening in 2032.
Ofcourse! 4 years to rebuild the Tobin School. 4 years!!! It’s a 3 story building. out in the open space!
It took less time than that to put a luxury 60 story building in the middle of Boston.
Peace Be Unto You,
What will the City Used it For?
City of Cambride has Unused Land, While Scores of Peoples Live on the Streets, Homeless and Disportionately Black.
Hello Everybody, I’m Hasson Rashid, I’m a board member of the Alliance of Cambridge Tenants (ACT), and a member of it’s Homelessness Advocacy and Outreach Committee. Today, I’m concerned about what happens to 882 Main street, after it is given to the City of Cambridge,MA. What will the city allow it to be used for? I would like to see the City of Cambridge convert this building facility and property, into supportive housing for the homeless. It is absurd for the City of Cambridge to let land and buildings, set unused in Cambridge, while scores of homeless peoples live on the streets, who are disportionately black.
The city has high priority homelessness problems. The city should put this vacant property to use, by converting 882 Main Street into supportive housing space for the homeless, of whom a disportion of are black.
My hope today is that the city doesn’t pass this vacant property on without the homeless in mind.
In some cities across the United States the city governments are donating, their unused vacant properties to addressing the homelessness crisis, for nothing at all, or as little as one dollar. I say donate this unused vacant property(s) to the “Alliance of Cambridge Tenants (ACT) Homelessness Advocacy and Outreach Committee.” ACT can then prepared for it’s use as supportive housing for Cambridge’s homelessness sector and mosaic. ACT’s past community work testfies that ACT has compassion for peoples in need.
Contact Information for ACT is as Follows:
Alliance of Cambridge Tenants (ACT)
135 Prospect Street Basement
Cambridge, MA 02139
[email protected]
617-499-7031
When calling the ACT office, please be patient. We only have one line & we do not have call waiting so we won’t know you’re calling. Leave a message and we’ll try to get right back to you.
Yours In Peace
Hasson Rashid
Board Member Alliance of Cambridge Tenants(ACT)
Cambridge,MA