BOSTON—The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved nearly $733 million in development projects late last week, including the first phases of the twin-tower Government Center Garage redevelopment plan.
The largest project to get the green light from the Board of Directors of the BRA last Thursday was the $536-million mixed-use Government Center Garage redevelopment project. The first phases of the plan, proposed by National Real Estate Advisors of Washington, DC and HYM Investment Group of Boston, will feature a residential and office tower. National Real Estate Advisors, which has a portfolio of $2.5 billion in net assets under management invested in commercial and multifamily real estate, is a subsidiary of the National Electrical Benefit Fund.
The first phase of the project will when completed feature a 486-unit, 480-foot tall residential building designed by CBT Architects. Also approved by the BRA is the second phase that involves a 1-million square foot, 43-story office building designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. Once construction begins on the office tower, the existing Government Center parking garage, completed in 1972, will be demolished. Approximately 1,100-parking spaces of the existing 2,300-car garage will be retained, enveloped by the office tower and two residential buildings at project completion, according to the project team. The reconfigured garage will provide parking for the new developments as well as daily parking, overnight resident parking and event parking.
According to figures supplied by the BRA, the residential tower will cost approximately $209 million to develop, while the office tower has a projected cost of $327 million.
The developer announced in a press statement that the construction on the residential project will begin this spring. Construction on the office tower will begin upon commitment by a major tenant. Transwestern|RBJ has been retained by the development team to secure office tenants at the property.
The residential tower will include approximately 1,300 square feet of ground floor retail on New Sudbury Street. The Class A office building will also include 10,800 square feet of retail space. A total of 64 units in the residential building will be designated as affordable.
At full build-out, the project will include 812 residential units, 196 hotel rooms, 1.1 million square feet of office space and 85,000 square feet of new retail space.
"We are humbled by the historic opportunity that this project presents," states HYM founding partner and managing director Thomas N. O'Brien. "This project will reconnect four of Boston's greatest neighborhoods—the North End, the West End, Beacon Hill and Downtown—that have been divided by this hulking concrete structure for decades."
Another major project approved by the BRA Board last week was the $125-million new Julie Hall dormitory project by Emmanuel College. The 19-story, 691-bed dorm building will replace the existing 220-bed Julie Hall.
The 267,000-square-foot building at 300 Brookline Ave. in the Fenway neighborhood was approximately 7,550 square feet smaller than originally planned. A portion of the building will be leased to a third party institutional tenant, according to the BRA.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
