The redevelopment of the Charlestown Armory is facing a temporary setback after the Boston Redevelopment Authority neglected to transfer title of small land parcels around the former book repository to the developer.
“The BRA is working on transferring the titles. It’s just taking longer than expected,” said BRA spokesperson Jessica Shumker, adding that the parcels in question were mostly slivers of land around the sidewalk. “It’s certainly on our radar, and it’s something that we’re working on diligently to clean up.”
Charlestown Armory Developers, LLC, a partnership Stoughton-based Conroy Development Corporation and Charlestown resident Douglas McDonald, was selected as the developer last year and plan to covert the three-story, Georgian Revival masonry structure at 374-398 Bunker Hill St. into 37 traditional and loft-style flat and duplex condominium units. The estimated cost of the project is $15.5 million.
Shumaker said pending the transfer of state easements, the developer is currently reviewing and finalizing its design plans with a BRA design team. “As soon as that’s done, we hope we can move forward,” she said.
Patrick Sweeney, the attorney representing the developer, said the BRA recently informed Conway Armory Developers of the oversight.
“There was a little bit of confusion,” Sweeney said. “We’re confident that they’re going to take care of it, and when they do, we’ll get started.”
Sweeney added that this was only a moderate inconvenience since the developer didn’t plan to break ground until the spring.
“It certainly a bit of a delay, but it’s something that pushes us back months, not years,” he said. “These things happen.”
Built in 1907, the building once provided drill space for four local military companies and, beginning in 1988, served as an off-site storage facility for the Boston Public Library’s Jordan Collection, the world’s largest collection of children’s books.

The Charlestown High School weight room got an extensive overhaul and new, top-of-the-line equipment courtesy of Dorchester native and Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg.
The project was sponsored by The Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, a charity established by “The Departed” star in 2001 that aims to improve quality of life for inner city youth through partnerships with local youth organizations. Although the Wahlberg Foundation wouldn’t reveal an exact dollar amount for the new equipment and weight room renovations, Michael Allen, chief administrative officer of Charlestown High, put the cost at somewhere between $25,000 and $45,000.
In addition to new floors, the weight room now features elliptical and plyometrics machines, as well as new weights and mats. Some apparatus will be used in physical therapy for special needs students, Allen said, adding that the new equipment was “commercial grade, not cheap stuff.”
In December, Allen wrote a grant for the weight room remodeling to Good Sports, a Dorchester organization that supplies equipment to sports programs serving disadvantaged youth. Three weeks later, Good Sports approved the grant and recruited the Wahlberg Foundation as an outside benefactor.
After the new flooring was installed during the high school’s February vacation, faculty members helped move new equipment into the weight room.
The updated weight room had its grand opening on Friday, with Walberg Foundation representatives in attendance. Mark was in Boston last week and planned on attending the opening, but had to fly to Toronto for a movie shoot before he could visit the facility, Allen said.

A Charlestown man was held without bail Friday following his Superior Court arraignment for allegedly shooting a man on Monument Street one day after Christmas.
Carlos Maldonado, 25, was charged with first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm for the Dec. 26, 2006, homicide of Mark Parilla, a 20-year-old man who had moved to Boston from the Bronx. Clerk Magistrate Gary D. Wilson ordered Maldonado held without bail based on prosecutors’ recommendations.
Evidence from police and prosecutors suggests after a fight in the Bunker Hill Housing Development, Maldonado chased Parilla with a handgun, firing multiple rounds and striking him three times. Parilla succumbed to his injuries at Massachusetts General Hospital a short while later.
On Feb. 20, Maldonado pled not guilty to a single-count of first-degree murder at Charlestown Court. He was taken into custody at a Columbus Avenue address on March 16 after police obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Maldonado, who was represented by attorney Robert Sheketoff, will return to court May 3.

City Councilor Michael Flaherty joined Manny Costa, president of Costa Fruit and Produce of Charlestown, at Bunker Hill Community College on March 13 to announce the new Good Neighbor program designed to reduce unnecessary noise and trash and to find ways to lessen the negative impact commercial ventures sometimes have on their residential neighbors.
As an example, Costa and Councilor Flaherty announced the launching of Costa’s new fleet of trucks equipped with automatic idle shutoffs. The new technology is designed to provide for the quieter operations of Costa’s trucks, with less air pollution. Costa is a large wholesale food distributor located off Rutherford Avenue in a commercial area that abuts residential neighbors.
Pictured, left to right, are Dave Whelan of the Charleston Neighborhood Council, Costa, Councilor Flaherty and George Morton of the CNC.

An underground NStar cable caught fire in the early hours of St. Patrick’s Day, releasing deadly levels of carbon monoxide into several Allston Street homes,
At around 5:30 a.m., Shirley Foley awoke to the sound of a blaring carbon monoxide detector on the first floor of her Allston Street home. She moved quickly to arouse the two young women in the other unit of her two-family home.
Engine 32 and Ladder 8 from the Sullivan Square firehouse and the fire marshal arrived at the scene, along with police, EMTs and an Inspectional Services Department building inspector. Firefighters checked the carbon monoxide meters and ordered Foley and her tenants out of their home. No injuries were sustained, but firefighters informed Foley’s neighbors that they would have succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning if they had stayed in the house for even 10 more minutes.
“It was a tragedy averted,” Foley said. “Thank god for the monitors.”
As firefighters scrambled to find the source of the toxic gas, a neighbor living several doors down from Foley reported he had lost power at 5:30 a.m. — precisely the moment that Foley’s alarm sounded. After firefighters found smoldering utility wires smoldering beneath the ground, the ISD worker said he had seen this once before after the plastic casing on an electrical cable caught fire in Brighton.
Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said carbon monoxide created by the burning wire traveled horizontally along voids in the wires and back through utility jacks into the Allston Street homes.
NStar spokesperson Caroline Allen confirmed a cable was to blame for the outage that left 25 customers temporarily without power. The resulting carbon monoxide couldn’t penetrate the frozen ground and instead found the path of least resistance, she said.
Allen added such instances are very rare, although she couldn’t provide data to support this claim. “We don’t keep records,” she said.
The faulty wire was replaced early Sunday morning, Allen said.

Mishawum Park Apartments, owned by the Mishawum Park Tenants Association and professionally managed by Peabody Properties, Inc., was recognized by the National Affordable Housing Management Association as the first-place national winner in the category of Turnaround of a Troubled Property. The NAHMA selected Mishawum Park from scores of entries from all over the country and will list the development on the National Registry of Communities of Quality on their Web site.
Pictured are President of the Mishawum Park Tenants Association John Ward holding the award and Resident Services Manager from Peabody Properties Don Young, second from left, at the NAHMA annual winter meeting in Washington D.C., on March 5.