High-profile and high-end residential and commercial developments reshape Boston’s singular, storied Southie
No matter which way it pans out, Mayor Thomas Menino’s scheme to move City Hall to the South Boston waterfront shows how perceptions of Southie have changed.
Billing his vision as the “Gateway to Boston at the Harborside,” the mayor proposes to relocate the seat of municipal government away from the geographic center of the city to the center of its development action.
South Boston is still very much a community of tightly packed triple deckers, drab warehouses, treeless main drags and hardknocks, parochial reputation cemented in the universal consciousness by “Good Will Hunting” and “The Departed”. But the warehouse and industrial districts are being transformed in ways calculated to attract homeowners and visitors from around the region and beyond.
One need look no further that the Institute of Contemporary Art’s gleaming new facility on Fan Pier; or the Children’s Museum, which earlier this year unveiled a $47 million expansion; or the hundreds of residential units emerging from new construction and renovations of warehouses and factory buildings.
Just last week, Menino attended the ceremonial groundbreaking for the FP3 project at 346-354 Congress St., which will create 97 new residences in the Fort Point neighborhood, with prices ranging from $350,000 to $2 Million. The Berkeley Investments development comprises three connected buildings, two of them renovated industrial sites and one new construction. The design by David Hacin of Hacin & Associates calls for a three-story glass-faced addition that will extend across the top of all three buildings. On the ground floor, celebrity chef Barbara Lynch will operate 15,000 square feet of restaurant/retail space that will include a fine-dining restaurant, a martini bar and a casual eatery with a market. The lobby will be given over to gallery space for the work of local artists
“We want this to represent the essence of the new district as we interpret it,” said Young Park, president of Berkeley Investments. “We want to preserve the heritage of the industrial district, but it’s got to have a contemporary expression.”
FP3 is just one of many housing-dominated, mixed-use projects moving briskly ahead in South Boston. In February, the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved plans for the $130 million Emerald Court development, which will bring 245 residential units and about 4,000 square feet of retail space to the corner of D. Street and West First Street. Developers MCL Cps/and SB Housing Enchantment intend to raze the existing industrial buildings on the site and build a new structure with a 30,000 square foot internal courtyard, The plan includes 32 affordable housing units.
Earlier this month, the board approved Leachmore Point at 11 West Broadway, clearing the way for the 62condominium development with underground parking and ground-floor retail space to be built over one entrance to the Broadway MBTA stop. Leachmore is just the latest in a housing construction boom on the West Broadway. Nearby are the lofts of the Court Square Press building at 9 West Broadway, as well as the under-construction Macallen Building Condominiums and the board approved residential developments at 50 West Broadway and 148 Dorchester St.
State Rep. Brian Wallace. D-Boston, has voiced concern that development has moved too rapidly, pricing out long-time residents.
“We need development, but there is good development, bad development and overdevelopment,” said Wallace. “I think speculators are getting worried. Money is drying up and condos are standing vacant.”
Fluctuations in the housing market have to be accounted for but won’t scuttle solid development plans, said Kairos Shen, the BRA’s director of planning.
“There has certainly been demand in the residential market until quite recently and developers have responded to it”, said Shen. I” don’t think there’s been as much speculation as many believe – people have been buying residences and living in them.”
City officials have to work with developers to ensure that plans are flexible enough to respond to changing markets, said Shen.
“We’ve just seen a hot residential market and now we hope things are looking up in commercial space,” he said.
Dwarfing the mostly residential developments are massive, multifaceted projects on the waterfront like the estimated $1.2 billion development at Fan Pier by the Fallon Co.
that will bring 3 million square feet of office, hotel and residential space. The New England Development will bring 385,000 square feet of office space, a 250-room hotel and 200 residential units to Pier 4, while preliminary plans for the 23-acre plot Gale International and Morgan Stanley bought for $204 million last fall include 6 million square feet of new residential, retail, office and cultural space.
Waterside Place will fill the gap between the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and the World Trade Center and may be the first of the large multiuse projects to be completed. It will bring 200 more residential units to South Boston, but will also provide more than 600,000 square feet of retail space to an area short on shopping opportunities. A 300-room hotel will also be part of the Drew Co’s development of the 8.3-acre site, known a the “Core Block,” which sits on top of the Massachusetts Turnpike tunnel and is diagonally across the street from the BCEC. Construction is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2008 and should be completed by late 2010 or early 2011, said Susan Allen, executive vice president of the Drew Co. When it’s finished, Waterside place will provide services for and connect the events facilities near the waterfront, said Allen.
With vast expanses of urban land involved, the projects grind ahead slowly – which, while understandable, can be frustrating to some folks.
“There are not many tracts of urban land available like this anywhere in the country,” said state Sen. Jack Hart, D-Boston. “It’s hard to judge it from the neighborhood perspective because it’s such a low process. But (developers) know they have to work with the community. Sometimes there’s a rush to do development, but this is such an opportunity that we want people to look back 100 years from now and think we did the right thing.
Among the developers, there is “little discussion about the need for public amenities,” said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association, which is creating a 47-mile Harbor Walk and generally advocating for development that “brings the public to the water’s edge” while succeeding economically.
“Balance is important – you have to be practical,” said Li.
Partnerships between public agencies and developers are crucial to funding public amenities, said Shen.
“Old assumptions was that the public would foot the bill don’t work anymore – now private developers are expected to include them in their plans and it’s yet to be seen if the new partnership can sustain new amenities.”
Concerns raised by Wallace and others that gentrification of the waterfront threatens traditional middle and working-class neighborhoods are not a physical and planning issue, said Shen.
“We’re not planning a high-rent district,” said Shen. “People have a genuine concern about change. We need to make sure there’s family housing and open space and recreation. The question is, can these Bostonians see themselves as part of a larger Boston?