Massive $1Billion Boston Garden Towers Mega-Project

A 1.87-million-square-foot, mixed-use project, with a price tag estimated at over $1 billion, will soon begin to rise over Causeway Street and the Zakim Bridge. The Boston Garden Towers will be constructed on a 2.8-acre parking lot located next to TD Garden, where the old Boston Garden once stood. The three tower project would connect 497 residential units, 668,000 square feet of office space and 235,000 square feet of retail to the sports venue and North Station.

The massive development located at 80 Causeway Street will dramatically alter the face of the TD Garden.

The new complex, designed by architect Elkus Manfredi, will rise over Causeway Street in two new towers: the office tower standing at 495 feet tall, and the residential tower rising to 486 feet. Both towers will be built above a five-story retail base.

A modern glass atrium will connect to a new entrance into TD Garden and to the MBTA's North Station.

Below ground, a four-level parking garage will be constructed to accommodate about 800 vehicles.

“We are creating a new front door to North Station, a new portal to the city,” said David Manfredi, of Elkus Manfredi Architects.

“We don’t want to create a mall; we don’t want to create privatized space. We want to create space that is inviting to the public.”

The $1 Billion + development will include:

•     40,000 square foot expansion of TD Garden
•     560,000 square feet of residential with 497 units
•     200,000 square foot hotel with 306 rooms
•     668,000 square feet of office space
•     142,000 square feet of flexible office space
•     235,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space
•     25,000 square foot glass atrium hall

Prior to leaving office, Mayor Menino had agreed to provide $7.8 million in tax breaks to help the developers lure the Star Market and build the underground parking spaces for the TD Garden.

The tax agreement will spread the relief over 15 years.

During that same period, the development is expected to produce $32.2 million in new tax revenue for the city.

Developer Boston Properties said the tax agreement was crucial to attracting a supermarket to the property and asserted the project will help enliven the area around the arena.

The massive project will be built in three stages, with the first phase to include the multi-story retail base, a supermarket, a cinema, a 306-room hotel, and the 4-story underground parking garage.

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The project is expected to create more than 2,000 construction jobs.

Colossal $350M Tremont Crossing 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.

Trans National Group Plans Boston's Third Tallest Tower

A developer has plans to build one of Boston’s tallest buildings in downtown’s Financial District. The 740-foot glass tower will include a 300-room hotel, offices, retail space, a restaurant and 150 luxury condominium units.  Costing as much as $900 million to build, the 900,000-SF skyscraper will add a new showpiece to Boston’s rapidly changing skyline.

The building would be the tallest building in the downtown area and will include a 300-room hotel, retail space, offices, and up to 150 condominiums on the upper floors.

The tower proposal comes during one of the most dynamic periods of construction in the city’s history, as numerous skyscrapers aim to alter the Boston skyline.

At 740 feet, the angular skyscraper would be Boston’s third-tallest structure, behind the 750-foot Prudential building and the 790-foot John Hancock Tower.

An office building at 133 Federal Street would be combined with the new tower at ground level to create a 72,000-square-foot lobby with restaurants and shops.

The complex, called 111 Federal Street will rise on one of the Financial District’s last major development sites, replacing the city-owned Winthrop Square parking garage presently on the site.

Before work can proceed, developer Steve Belkin must negotiate a deal to buy the property from the city.

The dilapidated garage at 111-115 Federal Street will be demolished and replaced with glass storefronts and modern lobbies for the offices and a luxury hotel.

Former Mayor Thomas Menino selected Steve Belkin to redevelop the property in 2006, but the project failed to attract enough tenants amid the economic downturn.

The original plan called for a 1,000-foot office tower, but that proposal was rejected because it would have interfered with air traffic. The new proposal calls for a tower 260 feet shorter.

The building will be one of only a few towers built in the densely packed Financial District since the 1980s. In recent years, tech companies, restaurants and retailers have brought new life to the area.

The project, designed by Boston-based CBT Architects, is expected to begin construction sometime late this year.

Giant Apartment Tower Will Be Tallest in South End

One of the largest residential projects in the city is being prepared for construction on a block between Albany Street and Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End.

Leggat McCall Properties is preparing to build a giant apartment project at 575 Albany Street, part of a wave of development transforming a neighborhood that serves as the southern approach to downtown.

The 710-unit, two-building complex between Harrison Avenue and Albany Street near Boston Medical Center will be the tallest new construction in the neighborhood, with one building reaching 19 stories and the other 11 stories.

The 3.1-acre development, between East Dedham and East Canton Streets, will also include about 14,000 square feet of retail space and 40,000 square feet of office space, along with new open space and an underground garage.

Presently, there are five buildings on the site; three of them are slated to be demolished, while the ones at 575 Albany and 660 Harrison Avenue will be retained and integrated into the project.

It will be the latest development to spring up along Harrison, turning a low-slung industrial neighborhood into one of Boston’s hottest markets for high-end housing.

“There are a lot of buildings coming there and a lot more that could come, depending on owners’ appetite and timing,” said a real estate consultant. “It’s easily one of the busiest stretches of development in the city.”

The property, today mostly parking lots and small office buildings, was bought last year from Boston Medical Center, along with a neighboring office building.

“This is an opportunity to take an underused site and create a substantial residential presence there,” said Bill Gause, an executive vice president at Leggat. “It’ll create a lot of vibrancy.”

Builders have been drawn to the area because it’s close to downtown and the Back Bay. Development got a boost from a 2012 rezoning that enabled taller buildings along Harrison and Albany.

A few blocks up Harrison Avenue from Leggat’s project site are the recently opened Ink Block, with 315 units spread across three buildings, and the Troy, a 19-story complex with 378 apartments. There’s a 160-unit building under construction at 600 Harrison, and site work has begun on a 602-unit complex farther north, near the Massachusetts Turnpike.

In between are brick warehouses and old industrial buildings that have been converted to lofts, boutiques, and swanky restaurants. On many Sundays, thousands of people flock to the weekly South End Open Market.

And more is coming.

Developer Related Beal has an agreement to buy the site of Quinzani’s Bakery, a key parcel at the corner of Harrison Avenue and East Berkeley Street. Across Albany from Leggat’s property, the 5.6-acre site of the Boston Flower Exchange is reportedly near a sale for more than $40 million, although no buyer has been disclosed.

The apartments at 575 Albany Street won’t come cheap. One-fifth — as many as 140 units — will be set at rents affordable to low- and middle-income tenants, as dictated by zoning in the area, though some of those may be off-site.

The rest will be priced at rents comparable to those in other new buildings nearby, Gause said. Studios at the Troy, for example, run between about $2,600 and $3,000 a month.

Gause predicts strong demand for the units, in part because of the proximity to Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine.

The company plans to build in two phases — a 410-unit building first, then a 300-unit building. The developer expects to begin construction later this year.