No new parking in Dudley as Bolling building opens

As construction workers put the finishing touches on the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, area business owners and civic activists are struggling with longstanding parking challenges that many expect will become worse.

With hundreds of new employees and visitors coming into Dudley Square on a daily basis, the city has retreated from a previous development plan that would have seen a mixed-use parking structure on the land formerly occupied by the Boston Police Area B2 building.

During a meeting of the Dudley Vision Task Force last week, BRA officials said that Blair Lot, located between Washington Street and Harrison Avenue, will soon convert from its current two-hour parking limit to an all-day parking lot.

The change will occur in conjunction with better enforcement of parking limits in the surrounding area, which BRA officials say has been lax thus far, contributing to the space crunch felt by so many Dudley shoppers. The pay scheme for Blair Lot has not yet been determined. The city claims the parking lot conversion will be temporary because that parcel of land is meant to be used for long-term development projects.

BRA officials say the Blair Lot change will accommodate the 67 BPS employees who will need daily parking for their work at the Bolling Building, and an additional 91 spaces for retail patrons. The BRA based its conclusions on a study of parking patterns in Dudley Square it conducted last August. The study also found that drivers actually underutilized unrestricted on-street parking in some parts of Dudley Square.

However, Dudley Square Main Streets Executive Director Joyce Stanley, a Task Force member, raised issues with some of the city’s conclusions, arguing it is misleading to characterize people who overstay the 2-hour parking limits as misusing the space, since many of those people are long-distance office employees who cannot leave work every two hours to refill a meter.

Stanley cited stories she has heard from local business owners who have long struggled to find sufficient parking for themselves and their customers, and doubts whether the change at Blair Lot will be sufficient to address the issue.

When asked whether the BRA would consider plans to build a parking garage in the area, BRA Deputy Director for Economic Development Dana Whiteside said that it “is not current City of Boston practice to build parking garages within any neighborhood for private use.”

Multipurpose transformation

The Bolling Building, the refurbished version of the old Ferdinand building, will house not only the new administrative headquarters of the Boston Public Schools but also a new Innovation Center, retail space and, if all goes according to plan, a restaurant. The changes are meant to foster local entrepreneurs, bring a new wave of economic activity to the area, and enliven local nightlife.

The startup space will be managed by Venture Café, with the firm Skylab providing a range of services such as educational workshops, business and technical support, and connections to resources and networks for local businesses. Emphasis will be placed on those who are underrepresented in the surrounding startup communities: people of color and women.

Skylab founder Bridgette Wallace said her firm is designing what she called an “ambassadors program” that would conduct community outreach. That program is still in the planning stages and would need to receive approval from the City and other stakeholders before moving forward.

The retail space currently has three confirmed leases, two leases that are nearing completion, and one that is up in the air due to earlier hurdles matching the right tenant to the space. City officials have not yet disclosed the identities of the businesses selected to occupy the building. Among those competing for space are Gallery Eye Care, Haley House Café, a Tasty Burger restaurant and a designer dress store.

BRA official Roger Mann said the food-related businesses selected for the site are all expected to apply for malt and wine licenses from the state.

The remaining retail space is meant to be a large restaurant, but the selection process has thus far run into some complications. Although the BRA initially issued a Request for Proposal for a restaurant, the RFP was revoked due to what city officials say was an inability to find a tenant with the required experience and capital to successfully operate such a large space.

John Barros, the city’s Chief of Economic Development, said at the meeting that the city plans to issue a new RFP for the restaurant in the coming weeks. City officials also stressed that even though the square footage brings to mind the kind of national chain restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory or Applebees, they hope to give the lease to a restaurant with a “local flavor” and will make efforts to do so before turning to a chain.

One idea floated by the panel last week was the possibility of splitting the large space into two restaurants, given the difficulty of locating a single tenant to operate it. Whiteside said that while the space was originally designed for one entity, it potentially could be split, saying that the BRA looked forward to further exploring the idea prior to issuing the new RFP.

A date for the Bolling Building’s ribbon-cutting ceremony has not yet been set, but the agency hopes to have it in mid-May, said BRA spokesman Nick Martin. The BPS staff are mostly moved into their new offices, and the retail and startup occupants are expected to follow suit this spring.