A plan to turn a Nonantum barbershop building into a mixed-use, four-story apartment building was officially laid to rest Monday night. What may grow from its ashes is anyone’s guess.

Barber and property owner John Mula and his business partner, Nicholas Beaujean, sought to have the building at 386-390 Watertown St. rezoned as MU4, which would allow mixed-use—residential and commercial—and the four stories needed to fit the 13 units needed to make the project feasible financially. They also wanted a special permit for the project.

But after a lot of pushback from neighbors, some very heated exchanges and the threat of lawsuits if the project was approved, Beaujean said he and his partners would have to figure out a better plan for the property and asked that the City Council withdraw his and Mula’s requests for the special permit and zoning change.

And Monday, the City Council did just that, unanimously and without prejudice, which allows the project to come back at a later time.

“I don’t think we found enough ways for the protagonists in this project to really listen and talk to each other and compromise,” Councilor Susan Albright said, suggesting that the Ward 1 councilors—Maria Greenberg, Alison Leary and John Oliver—didn’t facilitate enough dialogue between the developers and the Nonantum neighbors.

“Not in the sense that they would tell the neighbors what to do or tell the developers how to change their project, but the two sides weren’t given enough opportunity to really talk to each other,” Albright said.

Meetings and public hearings for the project were rife with frustration and vitriol, which Albright said may have been made worse by there being so many out-of-ward people at them.

“I’ll stay home next time, because I don’t think I added anything to the conversation,” Albright said. “And I think giving the folks in Ward 1 a chance to talk would be good.”

All three Ward 1 councilors supported the project.

Leary said the project started out simple—it was approved eight years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic, construction delays and inflation made it no longer financially make sense—and that she “erred” in not looking more closely at it from the beginning.

“So we got stuck on a few things, including the zoning change—and really, some fear,” Leary said. “And I realize that people are really protective of their neighborhoods and their village, and that’s a great thing. People want to protect what’s there, and Nonantum’s a wonderful village. It’s vibrant. It’s got a lot of great businesses. And so, I have to better understand that that’s where that’s coming from.”

Oliver emphasized that regardless of what happens with the 386-390 Watertown St. property, conversations are happening about rezoning manufacturing lots all over the city.

“It was actually really fun being on the same side of a project with my fellow Ward 1 councilors. That doesn’t happen a lot,” Oliver mused. “That was a lot of fun, at least while it lasted, right?”