Hines and Tufts Partnership's $600-Mil South Station Plan Moves Ahead

BOSTON-After years of delays and uncertainty, the developers of a $600-million mixed-use complex planned over the Hub’s South Station have taken a significant step forward with the filing of a Draft Environmental Impact Report with state environmental officials. The filing kicks off public review of the ambitious 2.1 million-sf project, a joint venture between Hines Interests and Tufts University.

“We’ll have a good feel in the next month or so as to what the issues are,” says Hines vice president David Perry, with the draft EIR providing a formal process for interested parties to voice any concerns. Perry says he anticipates that the first leg of the approval will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2001, while a best-case scenario would have the project underway by the end of next year.

Among the potential roadblocks are questions being raised by Amtrak and the Federal Aviation Administration. The former is troubled about service interruptions on the train tracks above which most of the development would be built, whereas the FAA has criticized a planned 47-story office tower due to possible impacts on air traffic. Preservationists, meanwhile, worry that new construction would detract from a recent restoration of the historic South Station itself.