In a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority Equity outlined its plans for the site and notified the city agency of its intention to submit the proposal for large project review. The property abuts the city's financial district and, as stated in the letter, is one of the few remaining sites available to accommodate new office space there. Equity's proposal involves building a 24-story structure on top of and around three interconnected historic seven-story buildings that occupy the site. The buildings would be developed as office space and a 300-room hotel and would include 1.1 million sf of space, including 660,000 sf of space in the tower that would reach 400 feet.

"We're concerned," Stephanie Pollack, a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, tells GlobeSt.com, referring to Equity's plan. Pollack notes that the company will have two hurdles to overcome before the project can get off the ground: the historic preservation issue and the height of the tower. The height restriction for buildings on Fort Point Channel now is 100 feet. Equity did not return calls for comment.

Pollack points out that the city is currently in the middle of a planning process to develop a municipal harbor plan for the downtown side of Fort Point Channel and Russia Wharf would be included in that. "The assumption is it will produce allowable heights higher than they are now but not 400 feet," she says. Pollack believes that Equity's initial proposal was a "trial balloon to see what the reaction" would be. "Too many buildings on the waterfront will be a problem for us," adds Pollack, who notes that Russia Wharf is a complicated project because the buildings can't be knocked down but adding stories on top "may not make sense for them."