Beverly 5-Story, 60-Unit Cabot, Rantoul Building Construction Set To Begin

BEVERLY, MA — Construction on a five-story, 60-unit apartment and mixed-used development on Cabot and Rantoul streets in Beverly will soon begin months after Beverly Planning Board approval, according to the real estate development and construction firm Procopio.

The firm said in a statement to Patch that the Amara property is planned for 26, 28, 28R Cabot Street and 4-6, 8 Rantoul Street and site preparation for construction will begin "over the next few weeks."

"We are extremely grateful to have been part of the revitalization of Beverly's Waterfront with the completion of our Sedna project on Congress Street," Tyler Palermo, Development Project Manager at Procopio overseeing the project. "Amara will join Sedna as one of the best multifamily
communities on the North Shore."

Procopio said the building will include a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units, as well as a garage and adjacent surface parking, with views of Beverly Harbor.

The Architect of the project is SV Design.

"We are very excited for this project to get underway," Palermo said.

The project's approval predated recent changes to the zoning in downtown Beverly designed to limit new large-scale developments.

The City Council approved ordinances in February that eliminated the seven-story "tall building overlay" district on Rantoul Street, created a new zoning district and restricted new building heights on and near Cabot Street, and requires 12 percent of units in new housing construction of six units or more be offered at 60 percent of market value.

Five of the Amara units will be designated as "affordable" — 8.3 percent of the units in the building.

The zoning changes apply to all future development and could not be enacted retroactively to projects already approved or that are in the Planning Board approval process.

The zoning changes sparked a series of conversations during public hearings, City Council and Planning Board deliberations about balancing the need to manage development in the downtown area while maintaining affordable housing production.

Ward 6 City Councilor Matt St. Hilaire, who this past fall proposed a blanket three-story limit for all new construction across the city, withdrew that proposal after what he called the "compromise" of the new height-limiting zoning measures.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)