The site of a longtime Fields Corner bowling emporium will be turned into three-story building with 22 units of housing and space for commercial stores on the ground floor, according to a revised plan that has been shown to neighborhood residents.

“We’re trying to keep this building nice and compact,” said Clifford Boehmer, principal at Davis Square Architects, which is handling the design of the building.
Depending on when they receive financing, project officials hope to start construction next summer, with completion in the spring of 2012.

Owner Tam Tran bought the 20,000-square foot site, the longtime home of Lucky Strike Lanes, four years ago,. His previous proposals to redevelop the 289 Adams St. property, which included plans for a four-story building, were shot down by neighborhood residents, who complained that he was trying to cram too much development into an area that couldn’t handle it.

Under the latest plans, there will be 14 parking spaces for the 22 units. A parking space on Park St. will be lost because of the new construction.

At a meeting in the back room of the Saigon Seafood restaurant on Adams St., abutters and other neighborhood residents raised questions about the parking and adding congestion to the area.
“I never can park anywhere,” said Anthony Hines, an abutter.

When one resident suggested putting a parking garage under the building, Hiep Chu, a project consultant, said the move would cost $2 million because they would incur soil clean-up costs. “That would wipe out the entire project,” he said.

Tran spoke briefly, saying he had bought the property because his Vietnamese friends had asked for a shopping center, but he has changed his plan out respect for the community’s wishes.

The architects presented a layout of the building, which was labeled “Lucky Strike Plaza.” Chu, who stepped down from his post as head of the Fields Corner Civic Association to take a paid job as a consultant to the project, said the name is a potential one, and a permanent one has not been chosen.