Fenway Center (One Kenmore) | Turnpike Parcel 7, Beacon Street | Fenway

cubbe8 said:
Getting ready to turn it over to Moriarty or is the project canceled
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Lab market is in tough shape. My guess is IQHQ is waiting to give Moriarty the go ahead to start until the market firms up. That deck probably cost over $100 million. There is no way this project gets cancelled out outright. Whether it gets done by IQHQ or another.

The deck is also built and engineered specifically for the tower as planned, so even if another developer purchased this project, we wouldn’t see significant design changes.
 
From law.com:
Construction company J.F. White Contracting Corp. filed a complaint on Wednesday against the commercial real estate company behind the revitalization of the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, alleging the defendants breached a $138 million construction contract by failing to pay the plaintiff nearly $27 million for work completed on a building
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And it seems that this is a copy of the official filing: https://assets.alm.com/ef/78/125465...orp-v-iqhq-fenway-center-tenant-llc-et-al.pdf

I was hoping that things might pick up once the sibling-project at 109 Brookline was wrapped up, and obviously we don't know the finer details or veracity of these claims, but it is not a promising sign.
 
This thing has real Filenes 2.0 flashing all over it. Tho instead of a hole we get a slab for a decade.
 
393b40 said:
This thing has real Filenes 2.0 flashing all over it. Tho instead of a hole we get a slab for a decade.
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This project should be so lucky. In return for a 52-month pause in construction activity (Nov. 2008--April 2013), we got the following:

1.) A "clean slate" at the site where the 1 Franklin residential tower rose--a lot of nasty intensive demolition work was done by the Vornado/Hynes project to destroy that hideous old Filene's Annex building that used to stand at the corner of Washington/Franklin. A reminder of how spectacularly fugly that building was:

filenes006-001.jpg


2.) A new development program that saved us from the clumsy original. A reminder of how clunky and uninspiring the prior development program was. Look how many clashing, seizure-inducing facade styles were envisioned there!

Also, although the encroachment on the Burnham Building is somewhat obscured by this vantage point, it would've been really egregious. Instead, the new development program let that majestic Beaux Arts masterpiece "breathe."

1159527711_5571.jpg



Was the 52-month stall agonizing? Of course it was. But again, considering the above, it was absolutely worth it. (Also, memories fade, and considering how brutal the 2007-09 recession was, maybe we should be grateful it "only" ended up being 52 months. If things had gone a little differently, the situation could've metastasized into a true new Great Depression--then how long would we have had to wait there?)

EDIT: if one considers the stalled project from the standpoint of, "when was the cloud lifted from it?", then, it's reasonable to consider it as having been stalled for a considerably shorter period of time--38 months--given that the new project was announced in February 2012: https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/02/03/filenes-new-investor
 
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DBM said:
This project should be so lucky. In return for a 52-month pause in construction activity (Nov. 2008--April 2013), we got the following:

1.) A "clean slate" at the site where the 1 Franklin residential tower rose--a lot of nasty intensive demolition work was done by the Vornado/Hynes project to destroy that hideous old Filene's Annex building that used to stand at the corner of Washington/Franklin. A reminder of how spectacularly fugly that building was:

View attachment 66650

2.) A new development program that saved us from the clumsy original. A reminder of how clunky and uninspiring the prior development program was. Look how many clashing, seizure-inducing facade styles were envisioned there!

Also, although the encroachment on the Burnham Building is somewhat obscured by this vantage point, it would've been really egregious. Instead, the new development program let that majestic Beaux Arts masterpiece "breathe."

View attachment 66651


Was the 52-month stall agonizing? Of course it was. But again, considering the above, it was absolutely worth it. (Also, memories fade, and considering how brutal the 2007-09 recession was, maybe we should be grateful it "only" ended up being 52 months. If things had gone a little differently, the situation could've metastasized into a true new Great Depression--then how long would we have had to wait there?)

EDIT: if one considers the stalled project from the standpoint of, "when was the cloud lifted from it?", then, it's reasonable to consider it as having been stalled for a considerably shorter period of time--38 months--given that the new project was announced in February 2012: https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/02/03/filenes-new-investor
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Excellent perspective summary. Thank you!

....and that first pic of the Filene's Annex and street scene - - looks like Memphis 1965.
 
PrancingRaven said:
From law.com:


And it seems that this is a copy of the official filing: https://assets.alm.com/ef/78/125465...orp-v-iqhq-fenway-center-tenant-llc-et-al.pdf

I was hoping that things might pick up once the sibling-project at 109 Brookline was wrapped up, and obviously we don't know the finer details or veracity of these claims, but it is not a promising sign.
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This is a lawsuit to enforce a mechanic's lien, which is an encumbrance on the property to ensure the contractor gets paid. JF White stopped performing work on the property, so they need to file this suit within a certain period of time to preserve their payment rights or they will lose them. While not a good sign, it is not a signal that the entire project is going down.
 
393b40 said:
This thing has real Filenes 2.0 flashing all over it. Tho instead of a hole we get a slab for a decade.
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The difference is that we have a deck, not a hole, if this happens. Hopefully the City could lean on whatever owner ends up with it to put in some sort of temporary plaza while we wait for demand to come back (or for some residential developer to buy the air rights). The deck has been built to support a 300' building, so in theory a future 300' residential tower could end up here (probably taller since labs are really heavy). It's kind of like how the SST piles were there for decades before the tower was built on them.
 
Equilibria said:
The difference is that we have a deck, not a hole, if this happens. Hopefully the City could lean on whatever owner ends up with it to put in some sort of temporary plaza while we wait for demand to come back (or for some residential developer to buy the air rights). The deck has been built to support a 300' building, so in theory a future 300' residential tower could end up here (probably taller since labs are really heavy). It's kind of like how the SST piles were there for decades before the tower was built on them.
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I was thinking the same as you about a temporary park on the air rights slab. That would be a great interim use.
 
393b40 said:
Good luck building on it after that "Temporary Park" is there for 10 years and the neighborhood throws a shit fit over it being taken away.
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Excellent point. It's like "rails to trails", wherein once a railbed gets converted to a trail, forget ever turning it back to its original use as a rail line.
 
Apparently they didn’t have any tenants lined up for this thing so that’s why it never got built. Just heard about it from a buddy.
 
shmessy said:
Excellent perspective summary. Thank you!

....and that first pic of the Filene's Annex and street scene - - looks like Memphis 1965.
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I do miss the old Filene's building on the corner of Hawley and Franklin. Initially, everyone was told that building would remain.
 
The former buiding/facade on the corner of Hawley and Franklin was attractive and from the sidewalk better than the current curtain glass tower. The other demolished section on the corner of Washington and Franklin was a concrete bunker and unattractive.
 
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