An apartment building in the center of a sea of parking is proposed for Amherst Street, just steps from Main Street. Hormoz Mansouri’s EI Team, Inc. is seeking approval for a five-story, 184 unit mixed-use building on the 3.34-acre site of the former Amherst Bowling Center at 47 E. Amherst Street. The property is one block from a light rail station and northeast of Highland Park, LP Ciminelli’s well-designed mixed-use project on the site of the former Central Park Plaza.
Mansouri is requesting variances for the height of the building, the lot width, parking location, front and corner side yard setbacks and ground floor front & corner transparency requirements. From the project application:
The proposed project will involve the demolition of the existing vacant building (former Bowling Alley) and will replace it with a state of the art mixed use facility. We anticipate various commercial/retail units on the first floor with floors two through five housing a total of 184 mostly low-income residential units. The residential floors will have a total of 176 one-bedroom units and 8 two-bedroom units along with community room space, laundry and garbage collection areas. Overall the site will have approximately 167 parking spaces which will be utilized by both residents and visitors. The site will have driveway access from both East Amherst Street and Holden Street and will incorporate various landscaping features and will have ample pedestrian access.
Some specifics on why the building is surrounded by 167 parking spaces:
We are requesting a variance on the location of the parking spaces so that parking can be provided in all areas of the building rather than just in the back of the building. This will assist both residents and visitors to the site to be able to access the various retail businesses as well as the residential entrances in a more convenient manner.
EI Team designed the project.
The Zoning Board of Appeals will get its first whack at the project on November 20.