From Rent-A-Car To Rent-An-Apartment

A vacant former Crown Street car rental center is slated to become two new apartments — after the landlord’s attorney explained that now is not the best financial time to knock down the commercial structure and build a big new building in its stead.

The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) took that unanimous vote last Tuesday during its latest monthly meeting, which was held online via Zoom and in person on the second floor of City Hall.

The commissioners voted in support of granting a use variance to permit a dwelling unit on the first floor of 402 Crown St.. Local zoning law requires that level of relief for such a ground-floor commercial-to-residential conversion when there are not also upper-story residences included in the project.

That 0.23-acre Crown Street property, which is owned by an affiliate company of Pike International, was most recently home to an Enterprise car rental hub. It’s sat vacant for a number of years.

Local attorney Ben Trachten explained that the property’s owner seeks to convert the single-story, 2003-square-foot building into two new apartments.

“Commercial use as a rent-a-car center was present for many years,” Trachten told the commissioners and wrote in the zoning-relief application.

“If the owner demolished the building, he would be able to rebuild at an FAR [floor-area ratio) of 6 on this 0.23-acre lot.” That would allow for a building of 60,000 square feet or more. ​“However,” Trachten continued, ​“market conditions do not support such an undertaking now due to interest rates and other impacts.”

He added that the landlord has tried in vain for years to rent out the property for commercial purposes.

“By retaining the building and establishing a low intensity use within the exact footprint of the existing structure,” Trachten said, ​“this application preserves the opportunity for future development while allowing the minimum degree of productive use in the interim.” The alternative, he said, would be to leave the property vacant.

Local architect Fernando Pastor spoke up in support of the project during the public testimony section of the hearing. ​“I am very familiar with this property,” he said, having helped convert three adjacent properties into ​“rooming houses for students.”

The whole idea of requiring stores on the ground-floor of buildings in this zone, he said, is that ​“you can be walking on the street and see these stores.” But with 402 Crown, he said, the existing building is quite recessed. You have to go to the back of the lot to reach the building. ​“It makes no sense to apply that condition” to a building that’s not right on the sidewalk.

The commissioners agreed, and subsequently voted in support of the requested use variance.