Porter Square Neighbors Association September 15, 2016, 7-9PM
North Cambridge Senior Center
2050 Massachusetts Avenue
MINUTES
- Porter Square Hotel
- Gourmet Express
- Beacon Street Hotel
- Google Group "Porter Square Neighbors
Porter Square Hotel
David Barsky updated us on Young Construction's three construction projects in the Porter Square. • Porter Square Hotel As of September, the hotel is waiting for inspections and hoping for a "soft opening" sometime in October. Some garden plantings were delayed by plant shortages due to the drought, and some may be further delayed until Spring. Screening for the rooftop air handlers is being fabricated now after a number of exchanges with the Planning Board.
1868 Mass Ave (old Gourmet Express)
28 units plus ground floor retail) The proposed parking lifts have been replaced by conventional underground parking, which will be accessed by a car elevator behind a planned garage door. The worker who fell is still in the hospital but is "doing fine" and out of the ICU. They are still considering of a change of use from apartments to a significantly smaller hotel. The ground floor retail will not change, but a restaurant is a possibility.
Beacon Street Hotel ("Hotel Gasoline")
This is the project on the Somerville side of the Beacon-Oxford Street intersection. The plan is for 23 suite-like rooms oriented to longer term stays, with underground valet parking. Possible completion in 12 months.
Google Group
The proposed switch to a Google Group supplementing the PSNA email list "psna@portersquare.net" was rejected due to objections by current members who prefer the simple text-based system and are concerned over Google's lack of privacy. (The idea of setting up a parallel group for those who like graphics was later abandoned due to technical difficulties forwarding email between Google and the current system.)