Proposed development of condos at 909 Beacon
Have a look at the proposed plans
and send your comments to us at
auduboncircle@gmail.com.
Landmark Center may grow
8-story office addition eyed for Fenway site
By Thomas Grillo, The Boston Herald | Thursday, May 27, 2010
Landmark Center is about to become a bigger Boston landmark.
The Abbey Group has filed plans with the city for an eight-story addition to the one million-square-foot office and retail development at the intersection of Brookline Avenue and Boylston Street in the Fenway neighborhood.
If approved, the developer would build a 308,337-square-foot office building atop the Landmark Center’s four-story parking garage at the rear of the complex on Fullerton Street. The addition will offer 34,000 to 46,000 square feet per floor for use as office, laboratory, clinical and research space.
Joseph Sciolla, managing principal at Cresa Partners, a Boston brokerage that exclusively represents tenants, said while there are millions of square feet of available space at low prices in Boston, expanding the Landmark Center makes sense because of its proximity to the Longwood Medical Area, where land is scarce for new construction.
“That section of the Fenway has the best chance of success over the next few years because it’s located so close to (Longwood),” he said. “They are hoping that medical tenants that need to expand will kick that project off. The area has retail, residential and public transportation.”
The proposal comes as the Abbey Group faces a number of financial challenges.
State Street Corp., the financial services giant, will not renew its lease for 135,000 square feet of space at the Lafayette Corporate Center, a six-story office building that Abbey owns behind Macy’s in downtown.
Meanwhile, sales of the Abbey Group’s 138-unit luxury condominium project at 45 Province St. in Downtown Crossing have yet to take off. Only 17 units have sold, including two this year.
David Epstein, the Abbey Group’s president, did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1257639
Fenway, Roxbury projects signaling retail resurgence
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | May 25, 2010
High-profile merchant
Target Corp. and natural-foods grocer
Whole Foods Market Inc. are eyeing major expansions in the Fenway, while Kohl’s Corp. is considering a smaller version of its discount department store in Roxbury — all signs of a renewed optimism in the Hub retail market.
The plans were described yesterday by Mayor Thomas M. Menino and other city officials familiar with the development plans. Menino, who this week is drumming up business for the city at a retail convention in Las Vegas, also reported that
Panera Bread Co. is planning to open a restaurant in part of the shuttered
Circuit City at South Bay Center in Dorchester.
And CB2, a home furnishings chain by Crate & Barrel aimed at young adults, is vying to locate in Fenway, at one of the new projects on Boylston Street by Boston developer Steve Samuels, the mayor said.
“We see the economy is getting a little better this year and people are thinking about expansions, new locations, and new concepts,’’ Menino said. “Whole Foods, Target, and CB2 — they’re really excited about the Fenway area. They see the demographic and the great potential with the medical centers and college students.’’
It’s a striking difference in tone from last year, when Menino, for the first time in 16 years, didn’t even attend the annual Global Retail Real Estate Convention because of the tough economic climate.
The recession has hit the Boston retail market particularly hard, with vacancies soaring to 11.6 percent in 2009, compared with 9.7 percent for Eastern Massachusetts, according to KeyPoint Partners LLC, a market research firm.
But there is cautious optimism as consumers slowly resume their shopping habits. Nearly 70 percent of US retailers believe that the overall economy is improving, and 92 percent are planning to increase store openings, according to a survey released last week by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. Newbury Street has already started to see the uptick: More than a dozen new shops opened in recent months, and another 14 businesses are set to debut in the coming months.
Although no deals have been finalized, Target, Whole Foods, and CB2 have been in serious negotiations for months to move into a planned complex at the Goodyear site located at 1345 Boylston St. and an adjacent property at 1325 Boylston St., according to city officials, including Susan Elsbree, a spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
Target is considering a three-story urban format with upwards of 130,000 square feet, which would make the store one of just about 40 Target shops nationwide that are spread over multiple floors or have a unique floor plan, the officials said. The project will soon start the permitting process, and developers are hoping to complete the site over the next three years.
Target, which has about 31 stores in Massachusetts, declined to confirm plans for Fenway, but Sarah Bakken, company spokeswoman, said, “Boston is a market that Target continues to be interested in for future expansion.’’
Robin Rehfield, a Whole Foods spokeswoman, also declined to confirm plans to move to the Fenway, but said, “We’re always exploring new sites in and around Boston, but we don’t comment on speculation surrounding specific store sites.’’
Samuels, who developed Trilogy and 1330 Boylston Street in Fenway, said: “We’re working with a big discount store, a grocery store, some other furniture stores, and other national retailers who are showing significant renewed interest in the Fenway.’’
“People are finally starting to realize there’s great transportation and demographics. It’s been overlooked for many, many years as the domain of the ballpark and medical centers,’’ said Samuels.
Madison Riley, a retail analyst with Kurt Salmon Associates in Boston, said Fenway is an appealing market for many retailers because there is a good neighborhood in addition to all the foot traffic that comes with the Red Sox games. Upgrades to Fenway Park that include more seats and expanded food options, along with new retail and residential projects in the neighborhood, “give a lot of people confidence that this is a good place to invest,’’ Riley said.
Tasty Burger and Citizen, a gastropub launched by the owners of Franklin Cafe in the South End, are two of the latest restaurants expected to open in the Fenway later this summer.
Retailers are also pursuing other sites across the city. In addition to the South Bay location, Panera has plans to open restaurants on Boylston Street in the Back Bay and Huntington Avenue near Northeastern University. Panera declined to confirm these locations, but John Maguire, the company’s co-chief operating officer, said in a statement, “We view Boston as one of Panera’s strongest development opportunities in the country and hope to open three more locations this year.’’
Smith & Wollensky steakhouse is also eyeing the Atlantic Wharf on the waterfront to test its new, lower-priced concept, Wollensky’s Grill, according to Menino. A Smith & Wollensky spokeswoman declined to comment.
In past years, Downtown Crossing has been a focal point of Menino’s pitch to retailers. But plans for a neighborhood revival spearheaded by the redevelopment of the Filene’s block at One Franklin Street are coming up short since the project lost financing.
In the meantime, city officials are aggressively marketing the former Tello’s site on Washington Street and hope momentum in other parts of Downtown Crossing will eventually breathe life into the Filene’s redevelopment.
“It’s frustrating. No questions about it,’’ Menino said. “They can’t just sit idly by.’’
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
Audubon Circle Redesign Project
On Monday October 5th 2009 at the Boston Arts Academy, representatives from the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Transportation Department met with neighborhood groups (ACNA, the Fenway Civic Organization, and others), interested neighbors, and staff of our elected city and state representatives, about their developing plans for the redesign of Audubon Circle and Boylston Street. Reports were delivered by Vineet Gupta of the BTD, and by representatives from the engineering firm HDR and Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge (landscape architects). When asked, we were told that the Urban Ring is on hold, whereas the Circle redesign is moving forward. There were no new designs, but the city is moving toward "100% design" in 6-8 months, bidding in the fall of 2010, and shovels in the ground in spring 2011. The neighborhoods were promised regular meetings as the design goes forward, particularly for Audubon Circle, whose preliminary design (below), the city acknowledges, has elicited a range of positive and negative comments which they want to address.
We will prominently announce any neighborhood meetings on this website; please check back regularly, and feel free to attend the next ACNA Board meeting to comment on this major transformation of our neighborhood!
The redesign of Audubon Circle has been in the planning stages for two years. After a community meeting in September of 2008, the Transportation Department developed its final plans for improved pedestrian, bicycle and traffic flow in the Circle. Access the City's report on and drawings of the proposed redesign of Audubon Circle here.
The Urban Ring
The Urban Ring is a proposed circumferential transit line that includes routes and stations in Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Medford, Somerville, Cambridge and Brookline. The Urban Ring is intended to improve travel times and reduce transit system congestion in the downtown Boston core by connecting existing subway and commuter rail lines, as well as many bus routes.
1330 Boylston Street Project complete:
welcome to the neighborhood!
One Kenmore Project
Check out the article on One Kenmore (here called the Fenway Project, by developer John Rosenthal) from the 20 August 2009 Boston Globe, and the letter to the editor in response.
