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BRA to consider major expansion of Landmark Center
By adamg on Fri, 01/10/2014 - 8:02am
The BRA holds a hearing next Thursday on plans to add 600 residential units, a supermarket and other retail space and an underground garage to the Landmark Center.
At the hearing, set for 5:30 p.m. in the authority's City Hall offices, developers will propose making room for the new space by tearing down the existing parking garage behind the main building, originally erected as a Sears distribution center.
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bye bye
Looks like Bed Bath and Beyond will get the boot (or at least during the duration of the project)
Not to sure how I feel about it, looks like they are trying to cram a buncha stuff into a small space. Although looks like they will enclose part/all of the Fenway T station (which would be nice because that area is a wind tunnel in the winter)
Fenway certainly is different from when I moved here over a decade again..
will REI and Best Buy and the movie theatre remain in place?
Looks Like it
Looks like it according to the plan. Only the parking garage will be demolished which houses BB&B on the ground level.
cinema will be "reconfigured"
cinema will be "reconfigured" on upper floors, whatever that means. You can see on slide 11 (Third Floor Plan) where the cinema space is outside "existing space". The longer plan calls it a reconfiguration, and there is no change in the number of seats in the cinema, so somewhat unclear. Lower floors of the cinema remain in the "existing" part of floor plans.
Boylston Street is one of our main SimCity zones
Where you can see the low-density, low-value commercial property morphing into high-value towers before your very eyes (the other, of course is the waterfront/Innovation District), if not quite at cheetah speed.
Can I...
But but I want to build a prison right next to the new Target. Better yet, let's just bulldoze the greenway and put a freeway in. I'll just put some green grass squares along each side of the highway to improve desirability. Watch the high rises pop up quick after that.
(Sadly, a SimCity4 replica of Boston doesn't work well for real game play..)
Robert Moses?
Are you finished paving Heaven and decidec to return?
No
i'm too busy making a space ship blast away Copley Square so I can put the Bureau of Bureaucracy in the square's place. It will look nicely next to the BPL (looks just like it) and the Aramark headquarters I put as a place holder for the Hancock Tower.
None of the retailers are
None of the retailers are getting the boot. The second floor of the old building is going to get converted back into retail space like it was during the Sears era to accommodate any tenants displaced by construction.
If you think thats bad....
We are currently in a streak of transportation failure across the board yet more and more residential units are being proposed (and approved) flanking every train line with the promise of commuting convenience. The T has done NOTHING to address the rapid increase of ridership we will be facing in the next three to five years.
What can the T do,
What can the T do, realistically? Until their debt and funding get an overhaul, the T will be in reaction model perpetually. This is something the city and state need to address, to keep the T from being a sinking island.
Not to worry
While I would expect anything that has broken ground to be completed, in a year or two there will be a massive glut of luxury apartments/condos and most of these won't see the light of day for over a decade. Don't get me wrong, the city needs housing - we're just building too much of one kind - the kind that the fewest number of people can afford.
Think about it - the last 3 buildings constructed before the financial crisis (about 1000 units) took 6 years to sell out. We haven't built a condo unit since so there's naturally a bit of a shortage right now - but once the first thousand or two thousand of these units hit the market this year and next, times will get pretty tough on the next 10,000 in the pipeline. And given the locations of what's coming online (mostly east of Mass Ave) - probably marginal impact on transit - maybe a bit on the Green line.
FWIW...Millennium Place - the
FWIW...Millennium Place - the only condo major condo building constructed during this current boom - only has 5 of their 256 units remaining. The next major condo project going up right now is the Filenes Tower at 450 units, built by the same developer. Based on the uniqueness (read height) of that building and Millennium's track record, I would expect that building to sell briskly.
The Copley Place tower is slated for condos, but they are not expected to start construction before 2015. In terms of condos for sale, we seem to be under-building downtown. Rentals may turn out to be another story with major projects going on in the Bulfinch Triangle, Downtown, Back Bay, Seaport, and the Fenway.
Fair enough
Although there are a number of condos in the pipeline and approved that are supposed to break ground this year I believe. I also have to wonder how many of these apartments will grow up to be condos if the rental market gets saturated.
perspective
I appreciate that this concept sketch is drawn from a perspective where if you were to actually stand there you'd probably be hit by a car instantly. How about fixing the traffic situation around there while they're at it?
Traffic
"How about fixing the traffic situation around there while they're at it?"
I really don't think there is any way to "fix" the situation over there.. The added lights have made it far safer for drivers, bikers, and pedestrians, but that's about all they can do.. Unfortunately that area will always be chaotic during rush hour.
The BRA
needs to make sure there is more expensive parking on Sox game nights.
We built a nice new shiny
We built a nice new shiny commuter rail station right next to the ballpark and doubled the number of trains. SO STOP DRIVING TO GAMES ALREADY!
I'd ride my bike but
between the crazy old drivers telling me to Fkoff and swinging bike locks at T buses I've been ordered to stay off my Schwinn.
Having grown up on the South
Having grown up on the South Shore, with your logic, I should drive to somewhere the Framingham/Worcester Line serves and take the commuter rail to Fenway? Seems a little out of the way when I can drive in and park for 20 bucks somewhat near the park...
(note: currently living a 15 minute walk from Fenway, so I doubt I'll be driving there any time soon)
No, you should drive to South Station
Then take a Worcester train to Yawkey.
Or you could get to South Station in some other way... ;)
Actually, in all seriousness, if more frequent service to Yawkey gets more people to switch from riding Red/Green, and instead using the Worcester line, that would really help on game days.
You Can?
Do you eat at Nemos or the Deli Haus after?
Some people just do use the T
Some people just do use the T.... And never will.
Too many
gropers.