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New York developer plans 17-story hotel for Chinatown
By adamg on Thu, 10/08/2015 - 9:09am
The Boston Business Journal reports a New York group has filed a letter of intent with the BRA to tear down an old building at 73-79 Essex St. and replace it with a 220-room hotel.
The building, used for light manufacturing, is next to Chau Chow City.
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Comments
First
to use the word Manhattanization.
Though I actually like this idea. Maybe if we get tourists staying in more "cool" places like Chinatown, they won't disappear.
Manhattanization
Manhattanization is a positive term.
Great real estate investment, culture, high paying jobs, great restaurants, great park, tons of good looking ppl to date....essentially its the capital of the world.
We can only be so lucky to be "Manhattanized".
I was definitely
being facetious. That word is as overused and meaningless as "Innovative" and "Sustainable" these days.
Man....
Do they absolutely need to destroy the standing structures? I get it, if they're unfit for habitation and revitalization would cost and arm and leg (or a pinky finger weighted for developer largesse) to regenerate.....I'm not going to stick my head in the sand and say no, no, no! I'm a bit confused why BBJ reference s "low rise", these aren't exactly low-rises.
But we don't build building like this anymore, and we certainly don't build them to the scale that the many of the blocks in Chinatown and South Cove have (and used to have). There are still the one-story retail sites, even in downtown, that are begging for a properly tall building to replace them. I don't like jettisoning these older buildings, they're proud even if run-down. But you know, competing interests and I support a lot of the development going on downtown so I guess that's just the inner tug-of-war and I'll have to deal with it.
Dainty Dot
I was sorry when they tore down the run down but grand Dainty Dot building in that area. It was great architecture with columns and an ornate facade. The building they put in it's place is a bore.
agreed.
this existing building has some nice qualities, even if it is a wreck.
other comment: does it bother anyone else when someone says that a building will "span" a number of stories....has my head turning 90 degrees.
For All The Armchair Urban Planners Out There
The BRA takes comments on these things. Yell and scream a lot at the meetings on the development, if it actually ever gets going. All the Letters of Intent out there right now for new condos, new hotels, new mixed use, feel a lot like 1988 when there were a lot of proposals for places that are still parking lots.
The BRA doesn't give a rat's ass about architecture, only keeping themselves in business and filling the city with tax revenue.
Like any person though, they will force changes if enough people scream about this.
Also, for those of you out there lamenting another change for Chinatown with "outsiders" coming, into the area, the person who sold the ground lease to this site is Asian American who has roots in the neighborhood going back decades. Ethnic neighborhood preservation is great, but when the people forcing change in the neighborhood are that ethnicity that everyone is lamenting about changing (I'm looking at you North End and South Boston as well), things aren't the museum piece you thought they were. Money talks louder than what village your people came from in the old country any time and all the time.
I would love to hit the BRA
I would love to hit the BRA up about destruction/renovation, but I'm not a Chinatown resident so what's my stake, you know? Not really my place to force anyone to preserve something they may want gone, as you said, the city can't be a museum.
But in that vein, I think we tread a little too lightly with usage (not alterations) of historic buildings. There's some beautiful, old, run-down brick apts on Tremont by NU that still function the way they're intended, I want more of that. Those building are stunning to me at least, even if they're getting on in years and in need of a power-wash.
Clarify
I didn't see the words "tear down" in that article. Might of missed it, or it's assumed.
(Edifice might be saved, I guess.)
So long, Chinatown
More high-end development. It's close proximity to Tufts and downtown sealed it's fate.
Scratch another ethnic enclave.