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Developer proposes 40-story hotel and residential tower at Causeway and North Washington

By adamg on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 3:24pm

A Newton real-estate investment firm says it will soon file plans to tear down three buildings at Causeway and North Washington streets to make way for a 40-story building with roughly 300 hotel rooms and 420 residential units.

In a letter of intent filed with the Boston Planning Department, RMR Group says it couldn't find anybody who wanted to rent space in the two office buildings in the triangle between Causeway, North Washington and Medford Street and so it decided to go big instead and replace them and the six-unit residential building there with a 600,000-square foot building that will include ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

The Project will revitalize this critical edge of the Bulfinch Triangle and optimize its potential given its proximity to transit infrastructure, cultural and entertainment uses and open space.

And will the project embody the city's goals for "climate-sensitivity and climate-readiness in its design and operation?" You bet.

RMR says it will file more detailed plans by the end of September.

251 Causeway St. filings.

Neighborhoods: 
West End
Topics: 
Development
Free tagging: 
North Washington Street
Medford Street
Causeway Street


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Comments

By Friartuck on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 4:12pm.

They can't even finish the North Washington Bridge....

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By cybah on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 4:58pm.

endless construction causing traffic along N Washington. Sigh.. just when I saw that the N Washington Street bridge is almost complete and they've moved to traffic barrels (vs dividers) to route traffic.

I'm curious to see the design of this. I like the building that faces causeway. Nice older stock, well kept building. The other two are gross in-fill buildings and the one at the point of the triangle looks like it went up in the last 20-30 years so its 1980s-efied.

But looks like they may level it for a high rise. Sigh. At least its residential.

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By CW on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 9:10pm.

Is a state office building I am pretty sure.

By deselby on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:33am.

I don't like the idea of replacing those agreeable brick background buildings with another glass tower. There's been enough streetscape carnage around Washington and Essex and with the creepy "Seaport" district.

By Ari O on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 9:17am.

Per property database. The one closest to Causeway is the Keany Square Building, which Bromley maps date a bit earlier. The floor plates actually don't look that bad; the Keany Square building has a light well which would make it somewhat easier to convert (since it's a pre-air conditioning building, they needed more ventilation, but it's now been converted into an atrium, it appears).

Anyway, the buildings on the site have about 220,000 square feet of gross floor space, chopped up for apartments that might be about 150 units. I'd guess that the cost of doing so and retrofitting old buildings for housing doesn't pencil out the way building a new structure with 3x as much floor space does, especially since the hotel market in Boston right now is quite hot and that's a good location for a hotel. Perhaps they might be inclined to keep some of the facades of the older buildings (or compelled by historic preservationists) especially on the Keany Square end, and Russia Wharficize the rest of it.

By PeyoteEatingWaterBear on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 5:36pm.

Build baby build! YIMBY all day! You don't like it? Move to Vermont or the Southern Tier of NY.

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By anon on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 8:48pm.

Boston has had a lot of building. And this place chose to empty out their buildings and time leases to allow it. They do this on purpose, forcing faux blight.

By FenwayFrank on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 11:51pm.

You can’t exactly build with tenants in the building, and no one wants to sign a lease for a building that’s going to be torn down soon.

I’m sure the owners know what they’re doing. Plus faux blight isn’t really an issue on Causeway Street…

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By makeshift_vicinity on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 5:54pm.

leasing the buildings they already have downtown?

By John Costello on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 6:13pm.

Hotels and Apartments are not.

That's why the developer wants to remove these buildings and replace them.

251 Causeway was a VA health clinic for well over 25 years but sounds like their lease is up and they are moving. The floor plates of 251 Causeway are too big for easy residential conversion.

Besides, not every office building can be converted to residential or hotel. If so, more of it would already be happening.

Let's hope no one in the North End gets concerned about shadows.

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By BillyinBoston on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 6:17pm.

Not residential, no problem leasing that out with those views at that height on waterfront. Build it !

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By Frelmont on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 7:33pm.

Off-spine high-rise

That’s going to be thirty storeys taller than anything around. Tall buildings are supposed to be placed on “the spine.”

By pcannon on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 7:45pm.

It's not a concept for today -- so long as it's cool with FAA / Logan, let's build it. We can't afford not to build housing because of some civic design board concept that predates color television.

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By Frelmont on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 9:33pm.

But, the shadows though!

By Lee on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 7:24am.

In fact we can’t afford to build it anymore. At some point it becomes the death knell of a livable city. It has for Boston.

By epeemike81 on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 8:46am.

I'm all for building a ton more 100% affordable housing buildings, but while market economies aren't the solution to everything, they are an actual thing and building more housing drives down the price. Build both. Build it all.

As for it being "the death knell of a livable city...for Boston." I've lived here my whole life (in the area... in the city proper for a decade and a half) and it's only gotten MORE livable and walkable in that time. The only part of the city that's gotten worse in that time is the T, which we also need to invest more in.

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By Lee on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 1:01pm.

… comfortably in Boston. Your bubble is very rosy and special but it’s gonna burst if navel gazers like you keep thinking this way.

You’ve only been here a decade. I was born here and have lived decades within Boston’s borders. I’ve experienced the changes. I’ve seen the exodus of working class people who support your lifestyle. The exodus of wealthier people too, who are sickened by the air, noise and traffic and the costs to buy or rent.
People who provide arts and culture, who teach or are in need of education have been priced out.

Boston has always been walkable. Even when there were no bike lanes, it was safer for cyclists. No more, bike lanes have become a necessity. Now we have vehicles on steroids on the streets. Drivers proud to call themselves Massholes. And way more of them.

That T has gotten way better. It still has a way to go.

Indiscriminately building more housing has proven not to help with lowering housing costs.
It helps foreign, out of state and out of Boston investors.

Use some common sense and critical thinking. If the developers you worship allow you to.

By Kinopio on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 11:54am.

What?! Boston needs more housing of all types. Boston needs working age people who have jobs more than it needs seniors and others who don't work. It needs the taxes that come from buildings like this.

By Lee on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 12:38pm.

Never worked?

All work is to be rewarded?
Is the work you do socially redeeming?

You live in a fantasy world but watch out. You are aging fast.

By Bostoneer on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 9:10pm.

Its not. Its right in the new northern extension of it.

By Frelmont on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 9:34pm.

On the Shawmut peninsula though. Build out west, but don’t break Boston (and surrounds.)

By Lee on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 7:20am.

.

By epeemike81 on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 8:42am.

thirty storeys (sic) taller than anything around... so far. :)

By Ari O on Fri, 08/30/2024 - 9:06am.

So how far do you have to go to find a tall building? The Hub on Causeway is ~500 feet tall (the nearer building only 31 stories, but the slightly shorter residential one 45) and is 426 feet away. Meanwhile the old Haymarket Garage buildings are a bit further away (1100') but taller (600' / 45 stories).

So, yeah, three taller buildings within 1/4 mile.

By Thomas Damigella on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 9:53pm.

This corner has historically been connected to North End , not the West End. However because of political redistricting lines that now ends North End at North Washington is misleading. Note the expressway tore down north end housing which was between North Station and n Washington st. Also, if this was originally the west end then north station would have been called West Station.

By Plen-T-Pak on Thu, 08/29/2024 - 10:00pm.

Whatever they build will never fill those corners as well as what's there now. All these corner plazas and landscaped dog toilets ruin the urban fabric.