Right before Labor Day, we directed your attention to 4889 Umbria St., a well located Roxborough property that covers almost four acres but doesn’t come close to capturing its highest and best use. Historically, this property was used for industrial purposes by a variety of plush and textile concerns. These days though, the property is home to a handful of former industrial buildings used by small businesses, some surface parking, and a ton of overgrown foliage. But this shouldn’t be the case for long, as developers are planning a sizable residential project here, dubbed Umbria Place Lofts.
Like we told you before, this project will include 384 apartments, 380 parking spots, and 128 bike parking spots. This week, the development team from Genesis Properties and GMH Communities presented the project to the Civic Design Review committee. The project is permitted by right, but it still needs to go to CDR due to its size. Fortunately for all of us, the packet for the CDR committee includes a bevy of site plans and project renderings from Oombra Architects, providing some additional context since we last covered this property.
You can see in the overhead views, this project will truly be a one of one, at least in terms of its shape and size. The main entrance to the building will sit near the corner of Umbria Street and Parker Avenue, with a second entrance on Lemonte Street. As the crow flies, these two entrances will be 500 feet from each other. The bottom two floors of the building will include all the parking, with five floors of apartments above. Those apartments will have two courtyards above the parking garage along with the project amenities, including a pool, a gym, a golf simulator, a clubhouse, a co-working space, green space, a fire pit, a stage, and outdoor grill stations.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this project is the fact that the new building will rise alongside the existing buildings on the property. While a couple unexciting buildings near Lemonte Street will get demoed, over 36K sqft of existing light industrial / commercial space will stick around. Hopefully, reality will match the last rendering and some of the ads on the outside of the beer distributor will disappear, which would certainly make the intersection take a step up in terms of classiness.
Does the nearly 1:1 parking almost on top of a Regional Rail station drive us a little batty? Of course! That being said, this project is proceeding by right, so this is clearly a case of the developers building what they think their tenants will desire, and not the usual story that the parking is required by the zoning code.
The CDR Committee requested that the project come back for a second presentation, but otherwise there are no barriers to the project proceeding. Here’s to hoping that’s exactly what happens sometime next year, as we look forward to seeing this property take a gigantic step forward. And not for nothing, we have to think that the businesses that will continue to operate here won’t be sad to see hundreds of new potential customers move in right next door.