The Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday approved a six-story, 40-unit condo building at 1258-1272 Massachusetts Ave., in what is now a car lot next to the new Dorchester Brewing Co.

Developer Douglas George's single building - he had originally proposed dividing the project into two - will have 10 studios, 15 1-bedroom units and 15 2-bedroom units, along with commercial space on the first floor that he's hoping to lease to a restaurant, likely Penguin Pizza. Five units will be sold as affordable.

The building will have 37 parking spaces - compared to the roughly 65 it would normally require. George's attorney, George Morancy, noted its proximity to "multi-modal rapid transit."

To ease concerns of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, which has a union hall behind the site, George agreed to shrink the height of the building from 69 to 62 feet - by making each individual floor a bit shorter - and to move the building about 4 1/2 feet closer to Mass. Ave., increasing the distance from the rear property line.

A resident of a home across Mass. Ave. opposed the proposal, calling it "gigantic" and saying it would only add to traffic congestion on the street, which she said has grown worse since the brewery opened, and which she predicted will get even worse once the new shopping mall next to South Bay opens.

The BPDA approved the proposal in October.