During Monday’s city council meeting, Councilor Emily Norton took many of her colleagues, city officials and audience members by surprise when she reported that Austin Street Partners — the developer building the mixed use property at 28 Austin Street — had announced at a meeting that they’ve decided not to include a restaurant in their project because the cooking odors would disturb the residents living in the apartment above them.
Notes Austin St was supposed to have a restaurant. Latest meeting said it’s not going to have a restaurant because people paying those high rents don’t want to be upstairs from a restaurant.
— NewtonVillagesAll (@NewtonVillages) August 14, 2018
Among those most surprised by Norton’s announcement (that’s her being quoted in the tweet above) was her Ward 2 colleague Jake Auchincloss, who sits on the Austin Street Liason Committee and promptly said he had heard nothing about it.
Nevertheless, Norton insisted it was true and she doubled up on her assertion via a Twitter the next day, saying she “wouldn’t be surprised” if developer Robert Korf did the same thing across the street at Washington Place.
Yup. It was the Austin St developer who reversed himself on the restaurant but I wouldn’t be surprised if WP ends up having similar concerns about renters experiencing restaurant odors.
— Emily Norton (@_EmilyNorton) August 14, 2018
Knowing that restaurants exist in fine apartment buildings worldwide, Norton’s assertion was frankly puzzling.
So I emailed, Scott Oran with Austin Street Partners and he assured me that his group is actively looking for a restaurant and that the project is being built with all the necessary ventilation, sound proofing, etc. so it would not disturb his tenants.
Here’s full text of a statement from from Austin Street Partners”:
An Official Statement from Austin Street Partners.
It has been our practice to remain uninvolved in the tick-tock of local politics but we have been asked to provide some facts regarding the retail space planned for 28 Austin Street, which is currently under construction. Facts remain crucial in today’s political discourse— both nationally and locally.
A restaurant with no more than 75 seats is permitted — but not required — by our Special Permit. The size of the restaurant was limited by Councilors concerned about the potential traffic and parking impacts of a larger restaurant. No affirmative commitment was made by Austin Street Partners that 28 Austin Street would include a restaurant. Nor have we said it would not. It is untrue to suggest otherwise.
The building has been designed and is being constructed to accommodate a restaurant with chases for proper venting of restaurant cooking and odors and a soundproof concrete slab above the first floor so it’s unlikely a well-designed and properly constructed, soundproofed, and ventilated restaurant would disturb residential tenants above. Restaurants are commonly found below residential tenants in multi-family residential buildings around the country and throughout the world.
We are currently seeking tenants for the retail space. No commitments have been made to any tenant and our broker’s list of prospects include many restaurants and other retailers. Names of additional restaurant or retail prospects can be provided to our retail broker, Jeff Arsenault at Avison Young. Mr. Arsenault can be reached at 617.366.1001 or [email protected].
Ultimately, the market and Austin Street Partners will determine whether a restaurant is appropriate and included in the retail mix at 28 Austin Street. In the meantime, let’s hope our Councilors stick to the facts and avoid distraction as they debate the important matters before them.
Austin Street Partners will have no further comment on restaurants at 28 Austin Street.
I think your title is unfair to Councilor Norton. I disagree with her on everything related to Austin and Washington Streets, but I have a feeling she was right this time. The statement from Mr. Oran seems like poorly disguised damage control.
Newtoner: Why would Austin Street Partners be going to the expense of putting in ventilation, soundproofing, etc. if they had already “announced at a meeting” that they would not be including a restaurant?
Show me a wood frame building in newton with residential above a restaurant. I can’t think of one, and if there is one, I’m sure it’s not high rent.
Perhaps NYC is the extreme case, but I rest my case with this article..
Living Above the Stove https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/realestate/living-above-a-restaurant-in-new-york-city.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Surely it was a fervent hope for one fewer place to snoop for plastic straws and pizza boxes that may have caused someone to take a developer’s ambiguous statement and draw a felicitous, in her view, conclusion.
@Greg
You were at city that evening, and you very well know Councilor Norton originally said Austin st but shortly afterward corrected herself and stated it was Washington Place.
@Simon: That’s what I thought too! But then she said Austin Street and confirmed it in a tweet the next day.
Very curious.
@Greg
If it’s click bait you are going after I think Brenda Noel’s tweet from that very same meeting was far more interesting
Councilor Downs calls for a vote and her male colleague on the council assumes she doesn’t understand the rules……#newtonma
I agree Simon, that was an interesting moment too. I keep waiting for NewTV to post the meeting video!
At the January 18, 2018 meeting of the Newtonville Area Council in the Newton City Hall Cafeteria, Mark Dufton of Dinosaur Capital said they would not be putting a restaurant into the Austin Street project because the residents would be paying a lot of rent for those apartments and wouldn’t want to live on top of restaurant smells. I took written notes of the meeting. If they have changed their minds and decided to indeed include a restaurant, which is what they’d been promising all along, that would be great news.
Thanks for commenting Councilor Norton. The headline has been updated at a reader’s suggestion.
I’m also highly doubtful my comments took my colleagues “by surprise” as the meeting was last January and I’ve been a broken record pointing out their statements at City Council meetings since that time.
I would also point out that “Ultimately, the market and Austin Street Partners will determine whether a restaurant is appropriate and included in the retail mix at 28 Austin Street” is not exactly a strong commitment to build a restaurant.
I just removed a comment from someone who has posted several times under different names. Per Village 14 policy, we do not allow sock puppets.
I certainly hope we get a great restaurant here and a few more across the street at Washington Place. But I’m glad Councilor Norton is so concerned about having one now since she opposed a restaurant at Austin Street when it was proposed.
Always a delight interacting with you Greg. Anyone interested in communicating with me can find me at [email protected]. Thanks all!
Thanks Councilor Norton! Right back at cha! Let’s make plans to meet up for a beer at one of the great new restaurants along the Washington Street Corridor when they open.
Greg – residential above restaurant in wood frame. I’m waiting…..
As much as I love new restaurants, this discussion makes me wonder if folks actually visit Newtonville. We have multiple good chinese (Lobster Wok is quite good for a hole in the wall, Rice Valley for sushi and eat in chinese), sushi, a good beer hall/sports bar type of place, multiple great diners (Rox, Village Cafe, Cabots), multiple ice cream parlors, 3 coffee shops (including one that is not a huge chain that serves art coffee), a great american restaurant in Cook, multiple pizza joints, a Thai place, a burrito place, a bread bakery, and for good measure, a terrific beer store and a paint bar. That’s somewhere around 17 food establishments, not even including Whole Foods or the paint bar. In Newtonville.
That’s not half bad. That is far more than most villages in Newton. I’d love some more choices. But at some point, there is a saturation point for food if you don’t add additional customers within close distance.
Mostly I was hoping for the new buildings to host restaurants so that we could expand our options for outdoor dining. I’m hoping that the new wider sidewalk will help with that.
I’ll also note that this discussion that new buildings don’t want restaurants ignores the simple fact that…lots of new buildings in Boston have them. Have you visited the Fenway recently? Back Bay? Brookline?
As someone who lived above a restaurant for 5 years, I’m aware of the noise and smell issues. But many folks don’t realize how much new construction can deal with that. And how many folks won’t care about it. Does it affect rent for those units? Often, yes. Do landlords prefer easier tenants than restaurants? Often yes. But I’d argue that is as much about security, high rate of failure, and ease of use than anything else. And there is a big difference between a mid to high end restaurant and a beer hall or bar. Lumiere doesn’t make much noise for its neighbors. Pretty such Brewer’s Coalition does.
Here is what both buildings WILL do with that commercial space. Austin Street expands the commercial district along Austin Street, creating more of a village feel. It creates additional retail units. Even if they are filled with service industries, if enough additional retail is built some of the other older retail is likely to be left open. Supply and demand tends to be obeyed, especially in a smaller group setting like Newtonville.
And while I’m happy to let Emily and Greg snipe at each other until I run out of popcorn, the truth is that I’m really focused on the health of the village as a WHOLE, and the options within the village as a WHOLE. If CVS moves into Orr Block, and then a restaurant moves in CVS, great! If we get a useful retail tenant or two at Austin Street (bring back Bread and Chocolate!) or Orr Block, terrific! If the next new American joint opens anywhere in Newton, amazing! More retail means more foot traffic, means more vitality, means more people, means more daily visits. That also means more traffic, but that is an ok tradeoff in my book. But hey, I’m local, I live near the village, and I walk to it and from it daily.
Speaking of living near the village, can I mention one interesting tidbit. One of the main topics of conversation during Austin Street was about parking. So many tears shed about parking. I’m a heavy user of the Newtonville Village. I parked there at least a dozen times a week, if not more, running errands all times of the day, and on weekends too. And here is a secret: I’ve never found parking to be easier.
Kudos to the Austin Street developers. Reserving the free spaces in the Star Market shopping lot was genius. I now mostly park for free while I run my errands. I rarely have to wait more than 30 seconds. Street parking is still easy to find all the time. And most importantly, the entire 120 space parking lot is not even on line yet! I’m sure the winter will bring challenges, and I’m sure some businesses feel the disruption hurt their bottom line. But as a customer and someone who parks (or whose spouse parks and confirms my thinking on this), the parking doom so many folks predicted has not come to pass.
So maybe, just maybe, when Austin Street and Washington Place get finished, things might not look like the worse case view that opponents sometimes insist on. Sometimes planning and extra accomodations do help solve at least a major portion of the problem.
For those who opposed Austin Street, I’m happy to take a log of when I park in the Village, and when I walk and just notice parking. I consider parking to be easy if I can find a space within a block of my destination after no more than one attempt at looking. I’m pretty impatient actually. Even with that tight definition, still not difficult to find a space, which is great!
Cheers!,
Figgy