Honest question, why do the surrounding neighbors have so much power to kill a higher density project? If it fits the zoning which is mixed-use and isn’t out of character why should they dictate what goes here? As far as neighborhood character there are existing apartments to the east and south and even high-rises in close proximity. Unlike the Brookside31 site this is an empty lot that used to be a commercial property.
If it was mixed use zoning you could do a lot more with the site, but it's mostly OM (medium office) and a small part is CS (commercial). The problem is with the FAR allowable density is only 0.50 so makes it hard to make a project work for that density with the land price being about $30.00 sq. ft. At some point when retail/office rents increase and places like Cherry Street run out of space you'll start seeing overflow into this area and at some point something will make sense. Also, given the size of the parcels you're likely going to have to do underground parking or podium parking, both of which are very expensive.
The neighbors have kill a few rezoning attempts, one was a really long time ago and I think that developer wanted to build a high-rise condo project. The hotel developer talked to neighbors and didn't feel like they'd have a successful try getting the site up-zoned or at least enough push back they didn't feel like going through the fight to do it.
Given what's going on with the Brookside proposal, I do think if someone really wanted to do something on the site they could get approval for mixed-use or at least some PD approval.
There's just a lot of various factors with these two particular parcels that has scared a lot of people off. I've actually wanted to buy these two sites for several years, but just don't have the capital for it yet. I've had a few idea I think I could make work that wouldn't block views of the homes behind it and fit in with neighborhood. Maybe in a few years if they're still on the market.
