By Jim O'Sullivan

A national retail chain will occupy the empty Bradlees building on Morrissey Boulevard and the South Boston-based union carpenters regional headquarters is looking to build on the vacant parcel between Star Market and JFK-UMass Station. Two sites adjacent to each other farther south on the Boulevard are being handled by the same broker, and community activists hope to play a role in determining their functions.

National Wholesale Liquidators store, a discount department store, signed a 10-year lease with GPB, the realty company that owns the site, late last month, according to Phil Carver, president of the Pope's Hill Neighborhood Association.

Andy LaGrega, a principal at Wilder Companies, the company handling the site for GPB, said the franchise hopes to open the new store by November 1. He said National Wholesale Liquidators is "looking to surround the entire Boston area," with the Dorchester site its first toehold.

LaGrega said "cosmetic" construction would be underway soon, with the permit already obtained.

The Bradlees site has stood vacant for more than two years along what Carver termed "a viable economic artery."

A senior New England Regional Council of Carpenters official said the union group was in negotiations with Pappas Properties, owner of 25 Morrissey Blvd., to purchase the 30,000-square foot property. Mark Erlich, a senior assistant administrator, declined to discuss price, but the city assessor's department puts the property, near JFK-UMass, WLVI-56, and the Boston Globe, at $610,900.

Erlich said the council would seek to comply with zoning requirements already established by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and build a four-story, 80,000-square foot structure. He stressed that the deal is still pending.

"There's nothing substantial in the way of the process, it's just a time-consuming process," Erlich said.

Erlich said the property was appealing for its proximity to the T and the Southeast Expressway, and said vehicle access would open along Morrissey, not the back of the proposed building, which abuts a Savin Hill residential area.

Elsewhere on the boulevard, at a derelict Burger King site labeled earlier this summer by Kevin Joyce, Boston commissioner for Inspectional Services, "a death trap," owner Joseph Tagliente has agreed to negotiate with the community to determine future usage of the site. At a Neponset Post meeting on Thursday, September 4, Tagliente told neighbors and activists he would abide, to an extent, by local desires.

Suggested uses for the 77,000-square foot property will be divided into "acceptable," "non-acceptable," and "gray-area" uses, according to Tagliente, adding that the third category allowed room for negotiation.

Commercial broker John Cremmen represents Tagliente's Morrissey Boulevard site and a next-door site on Norwood St., at the corner of Conley St., an empty warehouse-type building formerly owned by late electrician Lou Rudolph. Cremmen said his handling of both sides, which appears coincidental, could allow him to make both sites more appealing to potential investors.

"I just don't want to see vacant buildings in the neighborhood. It does nobody any good," said Cremmen, of brokerage firm Spalding and Slye. "I'd like to see something positive for the neighborhood and the community."

Cremmen declined to offer specific suggestions for either site, saying he had to familiarize himself with the details of both projects.

Tagliente said he was eager to cooperate with the neighborhood, and had turned down a $2.5 million offer from a national warehouse franchise earlier this summer.

"It never dawned on me &emdash; I apologize for my callousness &emdash; how a development like that would be received by the neighbors until Phil [Carver] told me," Tagliente said.

But Carver and others warned that Tagliente and other local investors would be unlikely to refrain from accepting offers, no matter their impact on the community.

"These things left unattended will fester, and we'll be fighting developments we don't want," said Carver, at the Neponset meeting.

An experienced group of community activists agreed at the Neponset meeting that increased neighborhood say-so is a priority. While the meeting's focus was on specifics of various sites, residents' ability to work with developers to promote "smart growth" was the larger issue, with the neighborhood's potential called untapped.

"There's a lot of muscle in this room, and Dorchester still hasn't realized its political might," said John O'Toole, president of Cedar Grove Civic, noting that several civic group heads, state Senator Jack Hart, deputy director of Neighborhood Development Andre Porter, and representatives from state Rep. Marty Walsh's and City Councillor Maureen Feeney's office were in attendance. "We're always taking less here, we're always getting the short end of the stick. We're due for something."

Carver pointed to the pending arrival of National Wholesale Liquidators as an example of a development that had progressed without local input.

"However you feel about this development, we really don't have a say about it and it's there, and shame on us, because that's been vacant for two years," Carver said.

"I think the problem was we didn't have an open dialogue with GPB Realty to try to steer development."

A range of underused parcels from Neponset Circle to Columbia Circle include the former Neponset Soft Serve, unused now for three years, Neponset Bait, and "the world's largest ATM," the Sovereign Bank on Gallivan Boulevard, which is expected soon to house a functional bank, as Sovereign reportedly looks to consolidate from Freeport St.

Carver, who organized the meeting, called for the community to involve downtown investors who could help draw national investors, and said he had spoken with former Democratic National Committee chairman Steve Grossman, who had pledged assistance.

Cedar Grove Civic member Ellie Spring urged civic planners to keep in mind site specifics mandated by companies who have developed preexisting requirements, and said the neighborhood should take stock of its amenities before it shops for investors.

Porter said the information was available, and said the city would back neighbors promoting increased input in development.

"In general, we are always supportive of any neighborhood that wants to determine its own destiny," Porter told the Reporter this week. "If the city can help with its tools and resources to shape that vision &emdash; and, obviously, come to fruition &emdash; then we are happy to do it."