BPDA misses Mark rejecting Amazon Delivery Hub

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A proposed Amazon delivery center for the “last mile” in an industrial area in south Boston has come into conflict with Boston officials’ preference for high-rise buildings and commercial space.

Amazon wants to dot cities and suburbs across the country with ‘last mile’ delivery centers in multibillion-dollar expansion aiming to finally make same-day delivery a reality.

Drankt in Boston, Apparently, city ​​officials would prefer to take the inevitable traffic that will come from Amazon’s push to speed up deliveries no hub nearby while to jumpping jobs it would come with.

It’s a way of reading Boston planning & The development agency’s decision to speak out against Amazon’s proposed delivery hub in a gentrifying neighborhood in southern Boston.

Core Investments, which has spearheaded plans to transform an industrial stretch of Southie along Dorchester Avenue in new apartments, shops and offices, presented the plan as a transition step.

As part of the Core plan, Amazon would take over one now96,000 square foot empty warehouse, previously used by Blue Cross, under a tenone year lease.

BPDA rejects Bridge to Future

Core clearly sees Amazon’s delivery hub as a placeholder.

After all, Core has a vested interest in the ultimate transformation of the area as the co-developer of the 746-unit Washington Village project, which sits directly across from the warehouse.

But the BPDA said no, recommending the zoning council reject Amazon’s delivery hub proposal.sal.

The justification? Renting an empty warehouse from Amazon is not the goal of the big one of the agency “Dot Ave Plan” for rearrangeing the scrappy industrial to undress million square feet of new condos, apartments, offices and restaurants, more a large public park too.

Look, Plan Dot Ave won’t be built get out quickly, probably not even in a decade.

Given the contamination at the site and the contamination of the U.S. economy with COVID-19, tDevelopers will need a bridge to the future, and Amazon’s delivery hub may just be the perfect fit, with the intention of using the money generated from the lease to help pay for the necessary environmental cleanup. .

And when it comes to big projects that get nowhere, BPDA has a bad reputation.

The BPDA files are filled with them dating back several decades and bringing together virtual data and real dust, of a “water table activation plan” to turn the murky Fort Point canal into a paradise for kayakers and floating cultural exhibits – until that miracle happens to endless iterations of Fan Pier’s future, often bearing little resemblance to the rather mundane design that ultimately prevailed.

Rough Justice on Dot Ave.

There is also predictably – surprise, surprise – an angle of gentrification here.

It might not be a coincidence that the BPDA were discussing ways to do this stretch of Dorchester avenue more pedestrian and cyclist friendly just before the pandemic ends the talks.

While a certain level of luxury development here is probably inevitable, canceling plans for an Amazon delivery center is like throwing gas on the flames.

Essentially, it’s about rolling out the welcome mat to all of the people who can afford sky-high rents and sky-high condo prices to live in his new emerging neighborhood, while closing the door on some of the blue collar jobs he has. great need.

No, these are not good union jobs – not by a longshot. Working in an Amazon warehouse – or breaking your ass as a contract delivery driver – are tough jobs. Brutal concerts, really.

Told factory jobs from the glory days of the 1960s andThe 1970s are long gone.

Buthere Amazon are the jobs that are here right now, jobs that pay something like a living wage, jobs that people in a tough and ruthless economy rely on pay the bills and keep your head above water.

And there is a bit of crude justice in forcing the affluent tenants and young professionals who will fulfill all these new plans. Point Avenue apartments to support a little extra traffic and noise FROM all those amazon vans at the service of all their whims and guided by the real the people who make the modern service economy check.

By its decision, the BPDA effectively forces Amazon to find another place out of sight potential new luxury towers in the neighborhood. In fact, the agency is so committed to maintaining the purity of its beloved plan, that he is ready to refuse hundreds of new jobs in the middle of the worst slowdown since the Great Depression.

Sorry, but that It just seems like bad planning to me.

Scott Van Voorhis is the Banker & Tradesman columnist; the opinions expressed are his own. He can be contacted at[email protected].

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