$350M Mixed-Use Development Planned for Roxbury

Tremont Crossing is a $350 million mixed use development planned for heart of Boston, consisting of retail, office, residential and arts. The 1.7 million square foot project would bring the most sweeping change to the Roxbury neighborhood in decades. Located on an 8 acre parcel across from Northeastern University and the Longwood Medical Area, the complex will feature a mix of large-format retail stacked vertically, small retail shops and restaurants fronting on Tremont Street, office space for MassDOT, 300 market rate apartments, a 200-room hotel, a museum, a large garage facility and a public plaza complete with outdoor art.
 

For years, development has been promised for Parcel 3, a vast plot of land located on Tremont Street in Roxbury near the Boston Police Department’s headquarters and Northeastern University.

Elma Lewis Partners has held onto the development rights for several years without anything happening.

Finally, due to an improving economy and due to Northeastern’s expansion, which brought a new vitality to the area, the parcel will soon become something more than a fenced-off field of weeds.

Feldco Boston, part of the development team behind Tremont Crossing, has signed a letter of intent with BJ’s Wholesale Group to lease up to 90,000 square feet in the 400,000-square foot retail section of the project. This will make it easier for them to get financing for the other parts of the project.

Tremont Crossing will eventually encompass more than 1.7 million square feet of space and include retail and restaurants, office space, a 200-room hotel, parking garage and a 19-story residential tower. Also proposed is a new home for the museum of the National Center for African-American Artists.

Tremont Crossing will include a mix of retail, office, and residential uses: 

•  404,475 square feet of large format retail, which could also have entertainment and recreational uses on 4 levels

•  33,800 square feet of space for smaller shops and boutiques fronting along Tremont Street

•  300 units of residential including studios, one bedroom and two bedroom rental apartments in a 297,800 square foot tower

•  200-room extended stay hotel encompassing 102,250 square feet

•  38,000 square feet of cultural facilities that will primarily house a new museum for the National Center for Afro-American Artists located at the center of the development

•  713,785 square feet of office space above the cultural facility

•  8-story parking structure with 1,502 spaces

•  A large public plaza, complete with sculptures and outdoor seating space

Designed by the renowned firm of Cambridge Seven Associates, the project will be built in an urban style that will be modern, environmentally-conscious and pedestrian-friendly.

Construction is estimated to last 24 months and will create approximately 670 construction jobs and 1,738 permanent jobs.

$1B+ Government Center Redevelopment: 6 Buildings

Developers plan to construct a huge 528-foot glass skyscraper at the corner of Congress and New Sudbury streets. The curvy 47-story tower would be the centerpiece of a Government Center redevelopment project, where builders are preparing to construct a cluster of high-rises to replace portions of the Government Center Garage.

The project, estimated to cost well over $1 billion, will include construction of three high-rises and three smaller buildings containing more than 2.3 million square feet of commercial and residential space.

The project will begin with a 42-story residential tower with 450 rental and condominium units, followed by removal of the part of the garage that hangs over Congress Street and the construction of the 47-story office building. The developer wants to begin construction later this year.

The new office tower, designed by architect Cesar Pelli, would be an unusually dramatic building for Boston, a city that has shied away from the kind of eye-popping architecture that defines the skylines of other major cities.

In all, the project would result in six buildings containing 2.3 million square feet of commercial and residential space.

Three high-rises would be built on the western portion of the site, and three smaller buildings would be built along the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

 A retail plaza would create a new connection between the Greenway and Canal Street.

While the portion of the garage above the street would be demolished, the core of the building at Congress and New Sudbury would remain, preserving 1,100 parking spaces. That part of the garage would be hidden behind the new high-rises.

The development has received approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority, but plans for each building must also be approved by the agency’s design commission. BRA director Brian Golden has offered strong support for the project.

“The redevelopment of the Government Center Garage site will reshape the downtown skyline in a way that few projects can,” he said. “We welcome a creative approach to its design and look forward to working with the architecture team to review their proposal more carefully.”

Developer Tom O’Brien, a principal of HYM Investment Group, said the project’s architecture is meant to call attention to the vast change it would bring to the city’s downtown.

He noted that it would remove one of the area’s worst eyesores, a relic of the Urban Renewal Era, and reconnect the Bulfinch Triangle to the North End and Beacon Hill.

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects of New Haven is collaborating on the design with CBT Architects of Boston.

The project's primary investor is the National Electrical Benefit Fund.

Boston is experiencing a burst of real estate development, transforming much of its downtown and outlying neighborhoods. A retail and condominium tower is under construction at the former Filene’s site in Downtown Crossing. Additional towers are being proposed at Winthrop Square in the Financial District and at the site of the Harbor Garage on Atlantic Avenue.

In the Bulfinch Triangle, Related Beal is building a new headquarters for Converse Inc., and Boston Properties plans to construct a series of towers in front of the TD Garden.

In Memoriam: Passing of a Lighting Industry Legend

Joel Spira, founder of Lutron and a widely respected lighting industry icon, passed away April 8. The consummate entrepreneur, Mr. Spira was one of the lighting industry's true legends, inventing the world's first solid-state dimmer in his New York City apartment in 1959. He is credited with more than 300 design and utility patents in the U.S. and 2,700 patents across the globe. Spira had been at work the previous day developing a new product with Lutron colleagues. He was 88 years old.

“His work in lighting controls established a new industry sector. In turn, that industry became the means to significant energy savings,” said NEMA President Kevin J. Cosgriff.

Joel was born in New York City on March 1, 1927 to Elias and Edna Spira. After proudly serving in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946, he attended Purdue University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1948.

At first, Spira worked for a defense contractor on projects that ultimately led him to think about lighting control – ideas that led to the commercialization of the dimmer for household use.

Spira and his wife Ruth invented the world's first solid-state dimmer from their New York City apartment in 1959. Since then, Spira expanded the company’s offerings to include the first dimming ballast, the first reliable wireless lighting control system, and other innovations that have been widely adopted as lighting control standards and integral aspects of energy efficiency and high-performance buildings.

Today, Lutron makes some 14,000 products that can be found in over a hundred countries in residences, palaces, universities, hotels, museums, and offices, including the Empire State Building.

Joel and Ruth moved the company to Coopersburg, in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Even as Lutron grew into a global company, with sales in more than 100 countries, he continued to run the business with a personal touch.

In 2010, Joel’s accomplishments, inventions, and prominent role in helping develop an entirely new industry dedicated to lighting control were honored when items from Lutron’s 50-year history, including Joel’s first engineering notebook, product prototypes and early advertising materials, were donated to the Electricity Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, as part of the collection that also includes Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.

He will be remembered as an entrepreneur and took great pride in everything he did, from working on the early stages of an engineering project, to creating and growing a global business.

Joel Spira is credited with more than 300 design and utility patents in the U.S. and 2,700 patents across the globe."

Joel will be remembered as a wonderful, loving husband, father and grandfather. He is survived by his beloved wife Ruth Rodale Spira, to whom he was married for 60 years; his sister Miriam Spira Poser; daughters Susan Spira Hakkarainen, Lily Spira Housler, and Juno Spira; and grandsons Ari Hakkarainen, Max Hakkarainen and Bailey Malanczuk.

Services will be private.  The family has requested memorial donations in lieu of flowers:

The Joel S. Spira Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Education Fund
P.O. Box 850, 
Coopersburg, PA 18036

Copley Place Tower to Rise 52-Stories Over Neiman Marcus

Simon Property Group is preparing for construction of a 52-story tower at 5 Copley Place that would be one of the largest residential buildings in Boston. The project will create 542 residences, a 40,000 SF addition to the Neiman Marcus store, a glass-enclosed garden and 75,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space at the corner of Dartmouth and Stuart streets.  The $500 million private investment will put 1,700 construction workers back on the job. 

Approximately 680,000 square feet of new residential space will be above the existing building, situated across from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Back Bay Station.

The building’s 433 rental apartments and 109 condos will be housed in a slender 52-story tower designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, and include 71 affordable housing units.

The plans call for a lap pool on the 6th floor, a 7th floor sky lobby and deck, garage parking spaces and secure bike storage.

At 569 feet, the skyscraper will be the second tallest residential building in Boston, behind the soon-to-be constructed, Four Seasons Tower.

The project will include a large 40,000 square-foot addition to the to the Neiman Marcus store, followed by a complete renovation of the existing 115,000-square-foot store - which will not close during construction.

It will also include additional space for smaller-scale retail shops and restaurants, with a “public winter garden” at the Stuart Street plaza. The developer has also committed up to $1 million towards new public art and $250,000 to Southwest Corridor Park.

The project will build on the strengths of the existing Copley Place complex at Stuart and Dartmouth Streets and infuse an already successful retail destination with an inspired and dynamic mixed-use development.

“The expansion of Neiman Marcus and Copley Place strengthens our retail destination in the Back Bay and contributes to the City’s economic vitality,” according to a press release. “The project will enhance the urban fabric of the neighborhood and be a striking addition to the city’s skyline.”

The project attracted controversy when state representatives accused the Governor of violating a 1997 agreement by signing a revised lease with the developer before city and state regulators could review its impacts on area residents.

Some neighbors have raised concerns, for example, that the project will add to the high winds and shadows thrown off by other skyscrapers in the area.

However, the developer has stressed that the tower would not significantly increase wind in the area, and would only cast minimal new shadows on surrounding open spaces.

It also said it has rotated the tower from its initial orientation on the site and made several other design changes “to minimize environmental impacts, provide improvements to the public realm, and greatly enhance the overall pedestrian experience.”

Built by Chicago-based Urban Investment and Development, Copley Place was at the time the largest mixed-use project in the country. It was criticized by neighbors and some public officials for the way its hulking buildings towered over town houses in the South End.

The original $500 million project eventually included the Westin and Marriott hotels, four office buildings, a shopping mall, 100 apartments, and a 1,400-space parking garage.

The existing building at Copley Place consists of parking, three levels of retail and seven floors of office space.

The new design will transform the brick-paved plaza entrance to Neiman Marcus into a multi-story atrium with a glass facade

The new tower would fill out the last undeveloped parcels in Copley Place, which was initially built in the 1980s over the Massachusetts Turnpike roadway and ramps, and on a former railroad yard.

Simon initially proposed the project in June 2008, but put it on hold when the recession dried up funding for big projects.

The company resurrected the project last year and hopes to break ground by the end of this year. Construction is expected to last 3 years.