The owners of the Murphy Funeral Home on Dorchester Avenue filed plans with city officials on June 17 to re-develop their parking lot into a four-story building with 22 units of housing and ground floor retail. The longtime family-owned funeral parlor would stay in business next door.
The development team is led by Thomas and Julie Murphy, who own the funeral home. They plan to combine five lots that make up the parking lot to create one large, 10,544 sq. ft. lot to build upon, their filing said. The Murphys and their team prior to filing “have conducted community outreach and have had numerous design meetings with Planning Department staff members,” according to a letter filed with the Boston Planning Dept. on June 17.
There will be 12 parking spaces below ground, and the abutting funeral home structure will remain intact along with its driveway.
The parking entrance would be served by a new curb cut on Belfort Street, while eliminating the existing Dorchester Avenue curb cut that serves the parking lot.
The transit-oriented developed boasts being near the Red Line, Dorchester Market, Walgreen’s, Richardson Park, Moakley Park and South Bay Center.
“These are just a few of the ample amenities both along Dorchester Ave and in the surrounding neighborhood,” read the project filing. “Residents of the Proposed Project will be at no shortage of shops, restaurants, parks, and other conveniences in this active corridor of the city.”
The unit mix will include six studios, eight one-bedrooms, six two-bedrooms, and two three-bedrooms, along with 5,309 sq. ft. of ground floor retail space. The square footage of the residential units runs between 507 sq. ft. and 1,540 sq. ft., and four of them will be affordable units in the Inclusionary Development Program (IDP). The fourth floor will be set back to try to match the surrounding buildings, and the top floor will have a large common room with direct access to a 785 sq. ft. south facing common roof deck.
“The building façade sets up a horizontal and vertical rhythm,” read the project filing. “Materials include brick masonry, concrete, and metal panels as appropriate for a building of this scale. All outdoor mechanical equipment is located on the roof, setback and screened from view.”
