BROCKTON – At the corner of Centre Street and Commercial Street in the heart of Brockton’s downtown neighborhood sits the construction site of the city’s next high-rise apartment complex.
Just steps from the Brockton Commuter Rail station, the incoming “Centre Station” building will hold 40 one- and two-bedroom market-rate apartment units and commercial spaces.
The project’s developers demolished the old, one-story Central Glass auto glass shop, which operated from 1962 until its relocation to West Bridgewater in 2017, to make room for the five-story complex. The ground floor will house several storefronts while the four levels above it will be made into apartments.
“There’s 5,000 people that work within a three-block radius downtown and there’s nowhere to eat,” said Darrin DeCoste, the property owner whose coalition of developers Stoneridge Mutual Properties is building the project, in a 2020 interview.
DeCoste purchased the property for $425,000 in 2018, and the project has held an “aggressive timeline” since receiving approval from the city in May 2022. Construction is now underway and is expected to be completed by spring 2024.
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The building will be covered in gray, charcoal-tinted brick, complimenting the several brick buildings nearby. A thin, LED light bar will stretch up the height of the building as an aesthetic accent while also providing additional lighting for the property and surrounding downtown area.
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The property’s two trees will stay intact and additional low-maintenance plant species, that natively grow in the area, will be planted around the property’s perimeter. All greenery will be maintained in house.
The development abuts Brockton’s central MBTA station, giving the building its name “Centre Station,” and sits diagonally from Brockton’s bus terminal and epicenter of the Brockton Area Transit Authority.
“The area is designed for what everyone keeps talking about: transit-oriented development,” DeCoste said.
There will be 72 parking spaces designated for resident parking – 17 spots underneath the building at 127 Centre St., plus an additional 32 spaces located next door at 75 Commercial St. Plus, 25 street parking spaces.
EJ Krupinsky, an architect for the project, said there will be no parking for the first-floor commercial shops, but traffic will be pedestrian-friendly.
“It would be probably picking up people that are going to go onto the train,” Krupinsky said at a Brockton Planning Board meeting in May 2022.
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Amenities
In addition to commercial spaces, the ground-floor will boast a fitness facility for residents.
None of the 40 apartment units will have gas, removing the need for gas infrastructure atop of building’s roof. Each unit will have through-wall heating and cooling systems that are more energy efficient.
DeCoste said to an Enterprise photographer Tuesday that he plans to bring in a cafe or restaurant to the first-floor commercial space, which may be split into two businesses.
