Boston PIC Approves Suffolk University Permits, Flags Accessibility Gaps at Milk Street Conversion

BOSTON — September 11, 2025 — Boston's Public Improvement Commission cleared three Suffolk University public-way permits and a Crown Castle Fiber telecommunications conduit while flagging accessibility concerns at a Milk Street office-to-apartment conversion. Chair Yasha Franklin Hodge presided over the September 11 hearing, at which the commission unanimously approved Suffolk University's specific repairs to Tremont, Bromfield, and Bosworth streets for its 101 Tremont Street student residence hall conversion, along with a private utility license and a projection license for existing building cornices. Crown Castle Fiber's petition to install approximately 1,624 feet of conduit on Alford and Dexter streets in Charlestown also passed unanimously, contingent on updated plans, with Franklin Hodge placing on the record a formal request for heightened pedestrian and cyclist protections along what he called "a high crash, high speed corridor" where a pedestrian fatality occurred recently. Dinosaur Milk LLC's petition for limited sidewalk repairs at 9 Arch Street drew no vote after commissioners pressed the team on non-compliant sidewalks ringing the building; the project team was directed to return with areaway condition certifications and an expanded accessibility assessment. Two other items — a Hyde Park sidewalk project and an East Boston transformer vault — were continued to September 25 pending unresolved city agreements.