In what was originally proposed as a 21-unit rental building, the owners of the newly-minted 34 Oak St. complex have switched.

At a time when proposals are constantly changing to rentals in Allston and several projects in Jamaica Plain, the owners at 34 Oak decided to go for 14 condominiums instead of the proposed rentals.

“The fall market was dead for condos in Boston; no condos were selling,” he said. “Single-family units were selling, but condominiums were not. I think that gave a lot of builders pause going, ‘I don’t know if I want to move forward because I don’t know if this will sell.’ But in the last two-to-three weeks, some of those things that were happening in the fall are being absorbed into the market and things are starting to sell again.”

Insight Agent Mike McGuire said another point is that in Hyde Park, the missing middle housing – housing that’s not quite huge buildings but not single-family homes either – is starting to gain traction. https://tinyurl.com/39janaj8

“Allston-Brighton, that’s where my gym is and I’m there all the time, you have mega buildings,” he said. “One-hundred-and-twenty units, 80 units, 90 units, and so it’s a density issue where there is a lot of supply. An area like this has a more ‘neighborhood’ feel, so in my opinion there is going to be a lot more demand for this than a 14-unit boutique building. And this is more workforce housing instead of ultra-luxury modern units at $1,000 a square foot. This is very unique.”

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The starting price for a condo in the building is $485,000, well in the middle range for Hyde Park, but well below the city median price of about $800,000.

And while the public process was fraught with discussion and delay, as oftentimes can be the case, many of the objections to the proposal stemmed from parking and the lack of home ownership. Now, the building has one space per unit and is a condominium building.

“We’ve got parking, a lot of the setbacks on the sides and we’ve got the right height at 35 feet here,” McGuire said. “A bunch of my friends live a few doors down here, and I think it was a good process.”