Including one in Fort Point and a mammoth one at Govt. Center
Here’s the scoop on two local BRA approved development projects. Boy, oh boy! Boston just keeps growing and growing!
Stillings Street Garage to be expanded with two floors of office space and ground floor retail
Total Project Cost: $30,000,000
Total SF: 59,000
Construction Jobs: 42
Berkley Investments, owners of the Stillings Street Garage at 22 Boston Wharf Road, will construct a two-story addition to the existing garage for a total of 56,000 square feet of new office space. Ground floor space that is currently used for a management office and parking will be converted to 3,000 square feet of retail. The project, which the developer expects to get underway by summer 2016 should be completed in approximately one year.
TRO Jung|Brannen served as architect. Berkley Investments has committed $25,000 towards activating the wall of the garage that faces Q Park with a public art installation. Local neighborhood groups will work collaboratively with the garage owner and the owner of the park to develop the art project.
Residential and office components of massive Government Center Garage redevelopment set to move forward
Total Project Cost: $209,000,000 for residential tower; $327,000,000 for office tower
Total SF: 547,940 square feet for residential tower; 1,012,000 square feet for office tower
Construction Jobs: 524 for residential tower; 736 for office tower
The hulking concrete garage that spans over Congress Street near busy Haymarket Station will soon take on new life, as the first two phases of a nearly three million square foot redevelopment plan were approved last night. Government Center Garage, which was completed in 1972 as part of an urban renewal plan, will undergo a wholesale transformation over the next several years. The two buildings set to move forward include a 486-unit, 480-foot tall residential building designed by CBT Architects and a one million square foot, 528-foot tall office building designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. In accordance with Boston’s Inclusionary Development Policy, 64 units in the residential building will be designated as affordable.
The approved residential and office buildings, the first of six new buildings planned for the site’s redevelopment, will be constructed around and above a portion of the existing garage. The residential tower will include approximately 1,300 square feet of ground floor retail on New Sudbury Street. A mixture of glass and metal panels in varying shades of gray will enhance the building’s massing, giving the tower a contemporary façade. Pelli Clarke Pelli, meanwhile, designed a slender office tower with two flowing curved edges that help to soften the building’s height and create a sense of openness with the surrounding neighborhood. The developer, HYM Investment Group, hopes to attract tenants in the creative, technology, lifestyle, and health care sectors with a Class A building that will also contain 10,800 square feet of retail space.
By the time the office tower is complete, the portion of the garage that extends over Congress Street will be demolished to introduce daylight to an area that is currently shaded year-round. Together, the new buildings will dramatically reshape the downtown skyline.
All told, the eventual six-building development will include 812 housing units, nearly 200 hotel rooms, over a million square feet of office space, and 82,500 square feet of retail. Approximately 1,100 of the existing 2,300 parking spaces will be retained.
