$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.

Boston's Colossal Mass+Main Tower Project

City lawmakers have voted to approve zoning changes that will allow construction of a 195-foot tower overlooking Jill Brown-Rhone Park in Central Square, citing the need for more housing and affordable housing. To ensure passage of the special zoning, developers Normandy Real Estate Partners and Twining Properties offered to make 47 of its 232 units available for rent below market rate. The builders plan to raze the existing single-story Quest Diagnostics laboratory later this year in favor of the 19-story residential tower. Ground breaking is expected in early 2016 with a goal of first occupancy beginning in spring 2018. 

Twining Properties and Normandy Real Estate are preparing to construct Mass+Main, a 19-story residential tower located at the edge of Central Square, near the Red Line stop. The development will also a seven-story, mixed-use building.

Community benefits range from highly sustainable mixed income housing, to new retail with a local emphasis.

The builders plan to  convert  the  former  Quest  Diagnostics  lab  buildings  and  lots  on  the  block  bounded by  Douglass Street,  Massachusetts  Avenue, Columbia  and  Bishop  Allen Drive, into  a  mixed income  residential  community  with vibrant  ground floor  retail and  new  public  passages  connecting  Lafayette  Park  to  Bishop  Allen  Drive.

Constructing the taller building (195 feet) along Massachusetts Avenue will minimize  any  shadows    cast over the  park  on Columbia  Street, and  will  cast  no  shadows  on  Lafayette  Square Park. The  second  building  along  Columbia  Street  would  be just  70  feet  high,  and cast no shadows.

Office  buildings  up  to  80  feet  tall  are  allowed  under  existing  zoning with  a Special  Permit. Kendall  Square  allows  up  to  300  feet  and  North  Point  is  above  220  feet  in  certain locations.

In order to secure a vote in favor of their special zoning request, developers Twining Properties and Normandy Real Estate Partners agreed to make 47 of its 232 units available for rent below market rate. Of that 20 percent, most would be considered affordable; the remaining seven would be considered middle-income.

• Project sweeteners offered include:Permanent affordability for three additional housing units through Affordable Housing Trust Funds, bringing the total to 50.

• Giving the city the front part of 65 Bishop Allen Drive for the creation of even more affordable housing when the city identifies a “transferee,” and so long as the developers get to keep the rear portion of the lot for parking and get their special permit. 

• Promises to set up an advisory committee to give input on which retailers get ground-floor shop space created by the Mass+Main project, and programming for the seasonable public market that would be given a home. 

• At least 8 percent of units in the proposed tower will be “micro-units” between 350 and 550 square feet, whose tenants won’t get to apply for a residential parking permit for a car.

Twining  Properties  specializes  in  mixed use,  urban, transit oriented  development with  a  strong  emphasis  on housing and  is  well known  in  Cambridge  and  Boston. Twining, working  closely  with  the  East  Cambridge  community developed  two  apartment  buildings,  local restaurants along  the  Broad  Canal  in  Kendall  Square. 

Normandy  Real  Estate Partners  is  a  leading  real estate owner  and  operator,  with  deep  local  ties, and  invests  in  properties and  communities  for  the  long term.  They are committed partners with the neighborhoods they work in.

The partners  hope  to  break  ground  in  summer  2016  with  first  occupancy beginning  in  spring  2018. Their goal is to reach full occupancy by early 2019.
  

Developer Plans Huge Affordable Housing Complex

A Boston developer plans to build a block-long $225 million residential building directly above the Interstate 93 tunnel, a site between TD Garden and the North End that was left over from the Big Dig. Related-Beal is proposing to construct the 14-story tower with 239 apartments, each priced at rents well below the going market rates. The project would also include 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and a 220-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel.

Construction in booming Boston has fallen into a familiar pattern: large mixed-use buildings stuffed with expensive apartments, with developers kicking in only a handful of units as affordable housing. Advocates and officials worry that if the trend continues, Boston will become a city of the very wealthy and the publicly subsidized poor.

Developer Related-Beal recently unveiled a dramatic proposal that bucks the trend: a 14-story, block-long $225 million building on a prime downtown parcel near TD Garden with 239 apartments, each priced at rents well below the going market rates.

A little more than half of the units would be so-called workforce housing for middle-income tenants, with the rest aimed at low-income residents.

“This is a new model we hope will be replicated in Boston and other cities around the country,” said Peter Spellios, the company’s executive vice president. “We had an opportunity to do something unique and creative to address the extreme lack of affordable and workforce housing downtown.”

The average cost of the apartments would be $2.50 per square foot each month, the company said, compared to a market rate of around $4.50. Unusual for downtown, the project would include three-bedroom apartments to accommodate larger families.

To qualify for the 132 workforce apartments, residents would have to earn between 120 and 165 percent of the median income, which for a two-person household in Boston is $78,800, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The remaining units would be reserved for residents earning between 30 percent and 120 percent of the median income.

The location, a vacant lot directly above the underground Interstate 93, between TD Garden and the North End, is a leftover from the Big Dig.

The project would also include 10,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and a 220-room hotel, most likely a Courtyard by Marriott.

The surrounding Bulfinch Triangle neighborhood is as hot as any in Boston; just glance across Causeway Street to where the company is building Lovejoy Wharf, a $230 million complex featuring a new headquarters for Converse and 100 luxury condos.

Related-Beal is able to make the numbers work at lower rents because of the unusual nature of the property. The company owns a sliver of the site, while the bulk is controlled by the state Department of Transportation, which can lease it out for less than what a private owner might charge.

Secondly, the companyl has loaded a significant portion of the cost, including the lease, onto the hotel portion of the development.

And finally, the company shrewdly tailored its proposal to qualify for a laundry list of federal, state, and local tax credits.

The developer is even planning to use the $6.75 million it promised to put toward affordable housing during approval of its Lovejoy Wharf project in this new development.

Giant Expansion Planned for South Bay Shopping Center

The owner of the South Bay shopping center in Dorchester is planning to expand the complex by another 10 acres, resulting in construction of five new six-story buildings containing 475 apartments, 130 hotel rooms, a cinema, and stores. South Carolina-based developer Edens Inc., which owns several other East Coast shopping centers, wants to start building the first phase of the adjacent South Bay Town Center, in 2016.

The two-decade-old Dorchester shopping complex is no one’s idea of traditional city development. But it bustles as shoppers from Boston neighborhoods seek out the same low prices and broad selection that major chains offer suburban consumers.

Edens’ 9.9-acre mixed-use residential project would plunk 475 apartments, a 130-room hotel, a 65,000-square-foot cinema with 12-screens, multiple restaurant spaces and 113,000 square feet of retail space as well as three parking garages.

A total of 1,066 parking spaces would be included in the project.

The project will encompass 10 parcels on Allstate Road, West Howell and Enterprise streets, and Baker and Field courts — largely vacant, commercial/industrial land and parking lots south of South Bay Center.

Each of the buildings would be mixed-use, except for the hotel—which would stand alone. Edens also plans to add new roads and open space around the new buildings.

The shopping center developer said the social and economic activity generated by the project could be an impetus for “positive change to abutting, antiquated commercial and industrial properties” in the area between Massachusetts Avenue and the Southeast Expressway.

Public officials seem to agree that the new development would surely rejuvenate an area of Dorchester, which is riddled with vacant lots.

“The goal … is to provide a high-quality, pedestrian-oriented experience similar to other shopping districts such as Cambridge’s Harvard Square.”

The company has operated South Bay since 1998 and expanded it to Massachusetts Avenue in 2006. The first phase was built in the early 1990s on the site of a former Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse, after plans for a biomedical facility there failed.

Existing buildings on the site include the closed Kam Man food market, a closed two-story office building, vacant shipping and loading facilities and the Aggregate Concrete plant.

The expansion plan replaces the concrete plant and adjacent buildings with apartments and stores.

Several big-box retail stores already do business at South Bay, including Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Olive Garden and Panera Bread have restaurants on the property.

Edens also plans walkway improvements to connect South Bay Center to commuter rail service at Newmarket Station, as well as bus and subway service at Andrew Station on the MBTA’s Red Line.

Five New Developments Planned for East Boston

Everyone knows that East Boston is undergoing dramatic changes, in part, because of a plethora of long-awaited development.  For several years, buyers and renters have been moving over to Eastie to escape higher costs elsewhere in the city, and soon, these five new developments will get underway to welcome even more new residents to the neighborhood.
 

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Clippership Wharf 25 Lewis Street Boston, MA 02128 Clippership Wharf is a mixed-use waterfront development in East Boston that will include 492 apartment and condominium units along with lots of retail space. It will also have 300 plus parking spaces and flourishes such as a fitness center and a canoe/kayak-rental. To further sweeten the deal, Cassin/Winn Development plans to add 1,381 feet of promenade along the Harbor.

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Loftel Boston 175 Orleans Street Boston, MA 02128   Plans for the Loftel Boston include rehabilitation of a long-vacant six-story building in the Jeffries Point neighborhood, building a two-story addition, then creating 150-room loft style boutique hotel with parking for 65 vehicles. Boston developer Heath Management plans a “modestly priced” hotel where rooms would average $200 a night or less. Redevelopment of the historic structure at 175 Orleans Street will cost approximately $20 million.

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Hodge Boiler Works 111 Sumner Street Boston, MA 02128 East Boston waterfront is undergoing a dramatic transformation, and this big project will only enhance that change. DeNormandie Companies plans to redevelop the old Hodge Boiler Works site on the East Boston waterfront and create 95 rental apartments as well as a six-room bed and breakfast and a new marina building. Plans also call for a café, a 30-slip marina, a new Harborwalk and a parking garage for 75 vehicles. The developer of agreed earlier this winter to scale back his plans from 119 apartments to 95, thereby knocking off about 80,000 square feet.

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135 Bremen Street Boston, MA 02128 Last year, the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved construction of a 94-unit apartment complex at 135 Bremen Street, between Grove and Porter Streets in the East Boston neighborhood. Rental units will range from studios to 3-BRs. Plans for the 127,000 square foot complex include 110 vehicle parking spaces, space for 100 bicycles along with landscaped public space. The six-floor development is due to have a dozen apartments designated as affordable, as well as 8,300 square feet of commercial space along the ground floor near the Greenway. Construction is expected to start late this summer, and another 12 to 14 months before completion.

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One Fifty One Liverpool 151 Liverpool Street Boston, MA 02128   Cedarwood Development's plans for 151 Liverpool Street include construction of a new five story residential building with 24 apartments and 35 parking spots at grade-level. The 38,000-square-foot project will rise a few blocks from the Maverick Blue Line stop and include three apartments designated as permanently affordable.

New Buildings Set to Rise at Ink Block Mega-Project

There are few areas where construction is busier than in the South End, where development at the sprawling Ink Block project is moving ahead at frenetic pace. National Development is preparing for construction of the Sienna condominium at the Ink Block in Boston’s South End. The developer plans 79 luxury condominium residences, ranging from studios to 3-BR units, including high ceiling ground-floor units with terraces. Building amenities will include a sky lounge with city views, swimming pool, high-end shops and a restaurant.
  

The Ink Block is a $250 million transformation of the 6-acre former Boston Herald site in the South End, into a massive mixed-use housing and retail complex, where the first two apartment buildings have already opened.

The 79-unit Siena project will soon get underway and begin to rise alongside the Sepia, joining the city’s largest Whole Foods market in a four-building complex that will have 315 apartments, 83 condos, cafes and five restaurants.

The high-end units, designed by Manfredi Architects, will range in price from $550,000 to more than $2,000,000. A rooftop hangout - complete with grilling stations, called the Skyclub Lounge - will crown the building.

The Siena project is scheduled for completion in early 2017.

Phase II is scheduled to begin construction later this year, and will include an AC Hotel by Marriott as well as a sixth building with more residential units on a parcel adjacent to the Ink Block.

National Development plans to build the 200-room boutique hotel at 223 Albany Street, near the intersection of Traveler Street.

AC Hotel is a limited-service brand that opened in Europe and recently has expanded in the United States.

The six-story AC Marriott is also being designed by Manfredi Architects, and will feature a wavy metal facade with a glass-encased lobby and lounge on the ground floor. A small garden and patio are also planned.

The Ink Block and the Troy Boston apartment complex, being built nearby, are revitalizing a once-gritty section of the South End.

The Ink Block and Troy project will include nearly 800 homes near Interstate 93. Other large projects are planned on surrounding properties that could host several hundred additional homes, office space, and retail stores.

Construction on the AC by Marriott is set to start this year; it is expected to open in early 2017.

280-Unit Ames Street Residences Prepares to Rise

The Ames Street Residences is a 200,000 square foot residential high rise with 280 apartment units and 16,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. The  project, designed by FX/Fowle, will be a slender 22-story tower by rising in front of the Kendall Center East Garage, overlooking the Cambridge Center rooftop garden. 

There will be a mix of unit types at 88 Ames Street, including micro-units, studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms. Developer Boston Properties will set aside 36 apartments in the new building as affordable housing units.

The residential development has been debated for more than a decade, and was originally planned for the site now occupied by the Broad Institute’s new building at 75 Ames Street, located across the street from the site.

The project will now stand on a vacant lot on the south side of Ames Street, between 4 and 5 Kendall Center.

Boston Properties aims to transform Ames Street, between Main Street and Broadway, from a service street to a more active, pedestrian friendly streetscape with active ground floor use on both sides of the street.

The project includes a significant commitment to bicycle transportation with the addition of 296 secure, on-site, weather protected spaces accessible by residents and retail employees.

There will also be an additional 38 short-term bicycle parking spaces along Pioneer Way.

The city had initially asked Boston Properties to subsidize half the cost of a monthly bus and subway CharlieCard for the first 12 months of residence for all tenants, and also to fund $50,000 for Kendall Square transit improvements.

The developer’s counter-offer was for one month of CharlieCards.

After month of wrangling, both side agreed that for each resident, Boston Properties will provide three months of a subsidized CharlieCard and one year of Hubway membership.

The developer will also contribute $50,000 towards transit improvements, construct a Hubway station and install two electric vehicle charging stations.