Photo: A view of East Cottage Street looking east toward Dorchester Avenue shows the Little House and a small house in the foreground. Both would be bulldozed to make room for a six-story building to house a hotel and restaurant space under a plan advanced by a team led by Adam Sarbaugh. Seth Daniel photo
By Truman Dickerson, Special to the Reporter
Opinions were split among Dorchester residents who participated in a virtual public meeting last Tuesday (Jan. 27) set up for a review of a proposed development on East Cottage Street that would demolish the Little House, a building historically used for youth and community services, and replace it with a 6-story, 42-unit “extended-stay” hotel. The meeting was hosted by the Boston Planning Department.
The project’s developer, Adam Sarbaugh, several proponents, and an architect used the setting to explain that the hotel will support business interests in Dorchester and draw tourists to the area.
Sarbaugh also owns an adjacent property at the corner of East Cottage and Dorchester Avenue that includes condos, a vacant restaurant space, and the Dorchester Market.
Hotel rooms with kitchenettes, he said, would occupy floors two through five of the proposed new building, which Sarbaugh believes will match the demand for short-term rentals in the area that “are not being regulated properly,” he said.
“This is what we think will work best in a synergy for both small business and economic growth, for the neighborhood and the community,” he said.
The architect involved with the project, Tanya Carriere, said there will be a lobby on the first floor with a trash room and a bike room. She said there will also be “two commercial spaces” on that floor, which Sarbaugh said will hopefully become restaurants.
The hotel rooms, Carriere said, will range from 360 to 690 square feet in size. The sixth floor will house another commercial space, with a “green roof” on top, she said.
Reactions from abutters and other neighbors from the wider Columbia-Savin Hill area who were on the call varied.
Martin Brunswick, an immediate abutter who lives on Howes Street, said he was leaning toward supporting the plan.
“They’ve worked hard on details with us, but a couple things need to be ironed out,” he said.
“We’ve got a housing crisis here in this city,” resident Chris Fung said. “I just kind of question that this is the place where this particular site … needs to be developed.”
Savin Hill resident Donna McColgan was strongly opposed to the plan.
“I find this to be an abomination and not what you said you would do when you bought Little House,” she said. “It’s a big cash grab by you and we have to live with it.”
McColgan’s critique drew a warning from Planning Dept. project manager Nick Carter, who moderated the Zoom call. He said she might be ejected from the call.
“Won’t be the first time,” she shot back.
Aisling Kerr, a former city planner who grew up on Raven Street and lives in Dorchester, liked the hotel idea.
“I do believe in this kind of use,” said Kerr. “I think it shows how difficult it is to make anything work in this climate. If you look online there’s a major increase in apartments available in 02125…It’s a use that doesn’t exist and could satisfy someone’s need for housing.”
Don Walsh disagreed, calling it the wrong type of use for a residential street.
“The city should be ashamed of itself for even telling them not to take this plan and put it somewhere else on Dorchester Avenue,” he said. “This is a very clear example of what is wrong. This is individual developers’ self-interest impacting the residential character of the neighborhood.”
Brunswick disagreed. “I think of Beacon Hill, and it has lots of little hotels and boutique hotels and I think this could be the start of something good, where creating a little more density creates a little more services like restaurants and stores and interesting things happening on Dorchester Ave.,” he said.
Retorted Walsh, “So if you like Beacon Hill, go move there.”
Carter again stepped in to moderate the disagreement, and cautioned Zoom members that “telling someone to move to a different neighborhood is not about the project.”
The Little House building has historically operated as a youth and community center, and has more recently been utilized by Uncornered, an organization aimed at reducing gun violence and gang involvement.
The building still houses the Dot Art program, a crafts camp for children. Sarbaugh told The Reporter last month that the program will continue there through the summer, and he said in the meeting that he has been “keeping them updated on this entire process.”
There is only one planned parking space, which would double as a driveway. Some residents said that would put a strain on street parking in the area.
With guests checking in and checking out, “I think that has the potential for creating more of a ruckus or traffic issues with the neighborhood,” said resident Kristine Hoag.
But the developers countered that the “extended stay” model of the hotel would encourage guests to use public transportation and bicycles rather than cars.
“Check-in being 11 a.m. with check-out by 4 p.m. … Those are times that aren’t the same as a residential or the 9 to 5,” added Joe Hanley, a zoning lawyer.
Sarbaugh said that he attempted to find other community uses for the Little House, including building out a gym for nearby Boston Collegiate Charter School, but none worked.
“This isn’t the greedy developer trying to shove things in,” he said. “That is why the purchase was in 2021 and we’re sitting here in 2026 talking about this now… We’ve tried and explored options, and this is what we feel works best in synergy for the businesses and community.”
The project’s status is still “under review,” according to the planning department. The “comment period,” when residents can submit questions and comments about the proposed hotel, ends Feb. 8.
Reporter news editor Seth Daniel contributed reporting to this article, which is the product of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
