Developer to break ground on $150m mixed-use development in Allston

By Matt Rocheleau, Boston.com Staff

Officials plan to break ground this week on a $150 million mixed-used development in Allston.

The 350,000 square-foot project calls for 325 apartments, up to 45,000 square feet of retail space, a parking garage with space for up to 225 cars, residential amenities, and outdoor space to be built at the intersection of Western Avenue and North Harvard Street.

Parts of the development will stand between six and nine stories tall. The company leading the project, Samuels and Associates, expects to finish construction by fall 2015.

A groundbreaking ceremony Friday afternoon will bring together development and leaders from the city of Boston and Harvard University, which owns the property abutting its business school campus and is planning a series of projects for the neighborhood over the next 10 years.

The development, Barrys Corner Retail and Residential Commons, has been named after the intersection where it will be built.

Meanwhile, a group of residents recently launched a public campaign to have the intersections name changed from Barrys Corner to Allston Square.

Through an online neighborhood discussion forum, leaders of a group, called the Allston Square Association, sent messages recently proposing the name change and announced they are trying to gather signatures on a petition supporting their effort.

We would very much like to have you sign the petition to name this new retail and residential commons Allston Square after the great painter Washington Allston, who gave our community its name instead of Barrys Corner named after no one, the group said in an online message.

However, to honor the good folks who lost their homes 45 years ago when the BRA and the City bulldozed their little community and built the Charlesview Apartments, we would like to name the Grove, which stands on the very spot where their homes once stood, Barrys Corner Memorial Grove, in their memory, the message added.

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Developer to break ground on $150m mixed-use development in Allston