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Owner of a downtown office building proposes turning it into 36 apartments

4 Liberty Sq.

The building, photo from owner's filing.

A New York real-estate investment firm has filed plans to convert the seven-story and currently mostly vacant 4 Liberty Sq. at Water and Batterymarch streets into 36 apartments - and for a tax break under Boston's downtown office-to-residences pilot program.

In its filing with the Boston Planning Department, Abramson Brothers says seven of the units will be rented as affordable, with one of those set aside for somebody with a housing voucher, such as Section 8.

The current empty ground-floor restaurant space will remain as a commercial space, Abramson Brothers, which paid $12.2 million for the building in 2016, says.

Under the city's downtown office-to-residential pilot, building owners are eligible for up to a 29-year break on property taxes, through an abatement of up to 75% of the buildings' assessed value. The city program is aimed at both filling office space that has gone vacant since the start of the pandemic in 2020 and providing more housing in the city.

No parking is planned for the building, but the company says it's situated in the middle of numerous subway and bus lines. The building would get indoor storage for 36 bicycles.

4 Liberty Sq. filings and comment/meeting schedule.

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Comments

I'd probably die from eating too many burritos from Villa Mexico Cafe.

Vaanga, Casa Razdora, and Beantown Kebab are right there as well. All in regular rotation, for me at least.

More of this please. Let’s make the financial district more lively after 6 pm!

I think the bar on the ground floor is closed.

We need a commando team to get the former manager of the Vault back from exile and reopen it. I know where he is now. He might not budge.

These buildings will rehab nicely in to residences. As offices they are badly dated.