Fort Point building with landmark neon sign could be converted into apartments

A developer says he will soon file detailed plans to convert the Boston Wharf Co. building at Summer and Melcher streets - the one that has long beamed its devotion to "industrial real estate" in bright red neon across Fort Point Channel - into 77 apartments, under the city's pilot tax-break program for that sort of conversion.

In a letter of intent filed with the Boston Planning Department, Adam Burns's Boston Pinnacle Properties says 15 of the units, or 20% in total, will be rented to people making no more than 60% of the Boston area median income.

Under the city's office-to-residential pilot, owners of downtown office buildings can get a 75% residential tax break over 29 years. In exchange for the tax break, they also have to rent at least 20% of the units as affordable.

Boston Pinnacle says it will retain ground-floor commercial space in the landmark building, a symbol of the days when Boston was a major seaport.

The Boston Wharf Co. has its origins in the 1830s, founded by Joseph Sleeper (who then went on to co-found what became Boston University).. The company started filling in tidelands along Fort Point Channel and South Bay in the 1870s - in part using rubble removed after the Great Fire of 1872. It began erecting the heavy-duty warehouses and other buildings, many of which still line the area's streets - marked with the company's ornate BWCo logo - in the 1880s.

259-267 Summer St. filings.