In a partial follow-up to a post from April of 2015, Milhaus has applied to switch the final phase of its project at 10th and Park from flats to condominiums. They will match the style on the northern end of the unit:
This is intriguing as it represents fewer units overall for the project. It will go from housing 28 flat-style units to 13 condos. This is mixed news, but it does mean less density in a downtown block.
There does appear to be a new trend downtown for parcels to get more and more valuable that invite mega-large houses or a smaller condo. Further south in Chatham Arch, a long-delayed multi-unit complex was dropped in favor of a large house (bottom story) exceedingly valuable real estate, the corner of East and Walnut Streets. And there are other nearby examples of a move towards exclusivity. This move appears to be supported by the older downtown neighborhoods, especially ones that appear to fear density.
Building a big house (with attached rear garage) on a double lot a block from Mass Ave, and a project moving from smaller flats to larger condos may reveal the maturation of the development cycle downtown. Or it could mean that developers are starting to give up on the inevitable fights about density and giving the neighborhoods what they want to see. It’s an interesting phenomenon to watch. I just hope it doesn’t mean that other downtown developers give up all together and decamp for more fertile territory in the suburbs. Development will happen one way or another, so it might as well be in places that have already been built.