⚫ One Marina Park @ Fan Pier | One Marina Park Drive | Seaport

[statler]

Thanks, Van!

Fan Pier finally rises
Megaproject begins decades after plan's birth

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | September 26, 2007

When restaurateur Anthony Athanas bought Fan Pier on the South Boston Waterfront in the 1960s, he believed it could be developed over a decade or two into a mixed-use neighborhood.

"My father thought it would be done in the early 1980s, and he always thought it should have been," said Michael Athanas, who with his three brothers now runs Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant.

Instead, almost three decades later and two owners after Athanas, Fan Pier today will finally have a gala ceremony marking the groundbreaking of a massive multibuilding project of nearly 3 million square feet.

The faltering office markets, declining economies, and bureaucratic roadblocks that dashed hopes of previous Fan Pier owners are in the past. Now, the ambitious mix of office, residential, and retail space is designed, permitted, and financed by a developer who is ready to go at the right moment in the market.

Developer Joseph F. Fallon is taking the land he bought two years ago for $115 million, and the plan approved five years ago by the city and state, and starting to build. A soft-spoken but persistent businessman, Fallon started small in the development world, but recently has been a principal in major waterfront initiatives, including the Park Lane Seaport residences and the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel.

"We knew the timing would be right," Fallon said this week, as he watched tents being erected on the site to accommodate the hundreds of people invited to the groundbreaking this morning.

Development on the South Boston Waterfront has begun to pop in the last couple of years, with the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and new restaurants adding to the mix. Access to the area has been radically improved by the addition of the Ted Williams Tunnel and the MBTA's Silver Line.

"The synergy that exists today didn't exist 10 years ago," Fallon said.

Reflecting the rapid comeback in the city's commercial economy, Fallon is starting a 500,000-square-foot, 18-story office building "on spec," with no major tenant in place. That will be followed next year by five-star hotel and luxury condominiums, Fallon said, with development of another half-dozen blocks of retail, residential, and office space coming over the next 10 to 12 years.

The groundbreaking today comes after decades filled with prolonged permitting, lawsuits, and demands by the city, state, and community groups for extensive public space and access.

"Remember all the fights we had on this one?" Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday. "The day finally has come to see Fan Pier rise out of the ground to become a very important part of the city's economy."

For weeks, a promotional helium-filled balloon, 35 feet in diameter, has been hoisting prospective tenants 200 feet above the asphalt, letting them experience views they could lease if they'll commit to paying the $70 or so per square foot Fan Pier's brokers are asking. CB Richard Ellis is the leasing agent.

Anthony Athanas, who died two years ago at 93, had started a successful restaurant in Lynn. Looking for a new location in about 1960, he saw 35 acres of unused railroad tracks, rundown warehouses, and dilapidated piers on rotted pilings in a largely ignored corner of Boston. Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant opened in 1963.

Athanas wasn't a developer, so two decades later he partnered with the Pritzker family of Chicago, which ran the Hyatt hotel empire. But the partners fell out, and in a prolonged and bitter fight Athanas lost control of the land in the early 1990s. About that time, five acres or so of the fan-shaped parcel closest to downtown were taken for a new federal courthouse, which opened in 1998.

Through the 1990s, the Pritzkers planned their development on the 21 acres of land and water between the courthouse and Pier 4 - through ups and downs in the market, sometimes blocked by City Hall, which had its own specific vision for Fan Pier and the waterfront.

But the project that was finally approved included acres of public space and streets designed to be enlivened by retail stores on first and second floors, a sort of Back Bay in nine closely knit blocks. It features a large park, Harborwalk, and marina. The new Institute of Contemporary Art opened last year on waterfront space.

"The whole Seaport public realm plan was probably the best piece of planning the city has ever done," said Kyle B. Warwick, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle, which managed planning for the Pritzkers.

But after years of planning and final approval, the Pritzkers decided in 2004 to sell; several development companies looked at Fan Pier, but Fallon, backed by money from a real estate unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., prevailed.

Fallon engaged David Manfredi of Elkus | Manfredi Architects of Boston to refine the nine-block master plan, and Manfredi designed the first office tower. Fallon also hired HKS Hill Glazier Studio of Palo Alto, Calif., to draw up hotel and condominium buildings.

Far from its gritty industrial beginnings, Fallon said, Fan Pier will now be a place not only to work, live, and shop, but also to have fun.

"You can come to sail," said Fallon. "You can come fly a kite. If your spouse tells you to go fly a kite, come to Fan Pier."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.

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[ChunkyMonkey]

Great news! It's about time! Hopefully this will add life to the area.

 

[statler]

Fan Pier begins as harbor building slows
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Boston developer Joseph Fallon will break ground today on Fan Pier - a $1 billion-plus bet on Boston?s waterfront that comes even as the local real estate and financial landscape is shifting.

The city?s top business and political leaders will gather for the event, which marks the official launch of Boston?s centerpiece harborside development, after a quarter century of planning, debate and false starts.

Fan Pier construction begins as some are taking a more cautious outlook on new development along much of the waterfront, the result of a worsening real estate market and recent turmoil in the capital markets.

In Charlestown, a major Navy Yard condo project recently flopped. After efforts to sell units fizzled, the developers of the new Harborview II complex opted to put the entire building on the market as a rental project.

Meanwhile, in East Boston, a long-anticipated remake of the neighborhood?s waterfront is still pending, despite years of planning and discussion. One big project, East Pier, will move into construction next month, but as apartments, not condos, a spokeswoman said.

Even South Boston?s waterfront, where work is set to begin on Fan Pier, has had its share of ups and downs. While Fallon is moving forward, no work has begun yet on a promised revamp of the neighoring Pier 4 site, a project in the works since the late 1990s.

?The rest of the waterfront is very quiet right now,? said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association.

Waterfront condo developments were all the rage a few years ago. But developers with plans for new harborside office buildings are now leading the way.

Taking advantage of a booming office market, Fallon will break ground today on a 500,000-square-foot office building, the first phase of a much larger project. Fallon already has serious interest from tenants, and hopes to have lease deals by year?s end, a spokesman said.

Initial office space construction will be followed in the spring by a condo/hotel complex.

At the nearby Russia Wharf site, just across the Fort Point Channel in Boston?s Financial District, Boston Properties is pushing ahead with plans for a new office tower.

But new residential construction faces especially high hurdles on the waterfront, Li said.

Projects ?anywhere in the Greater Boston region face a challenge, but the waterfront especially because construction costs on the waterfront are very expensive,? Li said.

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[palindrome]

Yes i am excited about this news! I can't wait to see this project progress!

 

[lucky]

So it sounds like the first buildings to go up will be the ones right along Northern Ave. I suppose that's good because I am really concerned about the facades of those cream colored buildings on the water. They look like "Park Lane"...gag.

 

[awood91]

^ lucky, that rendering doesn't reflect what the actual buildings will look like. it is just a graphic to represent the respective heights and master layout of the project.

 

[Mike]

 

[statler]

Breaking ground at Fan Pier

When you've waited almost 50 years for a groundbreaking, it has to be a memorable one. Fan Pier's kickoff today was a party to remember.

Almost five decades after restaurateur Anthony Athanas bought Fan Pier for development, Joe Fallon today played host to 300-400 guests, as he, his partners at Mass Mutual and Cornerstone Financial Real Estate Advisers, and public officials broke ground on an 18-floor office tower on the South Boston Waterfront.

Little bottles of cold water kept guests cool on a 90-plus day under two large tents -- one for the speeches, and one, on the other side of a spiffy marketing center, for tables and tables of food.

"Today we break ground on the largest waterfront project in the city's history," said Mayor Tom Menino, who charged that it would be the largest green, LEED-certified development in the nation. (Southie Sen. Jack Hart cracked that, to the late South Boston city councilor Jimmy Kelly, "green development would have meant only Irish people would live there.")

"Fan Pier will enhance Boston's reputation as one of the world's great cities," said Menino. Asked about his plan to move City Hall, he vowed again to abandon the lonesome plaza and put it on the waterfront during his tenure.

Everybody thanked Fallon, who two years ago bought Fan Pier's 21 acres for $115 million and got busy making happen what had only been dreamed of for decades. "He's a risk taker with a long-term, big-picture vision," said WCVB-TV's Natalie Jacobson, who emceed the event.

With a loud pop, blue balloons burst overhead, and confetti rained down on the VIPs, who wielded shiny shovels to toss around a little sand that had been hauled in for the occasion.

"Fan Pier is now a reality," said Fallon, noting that it will have more than four acres of parks and a marina with "stern-to" docking, to accommodate the megayachts of those world travelers who might want to live or stay at Fan Pier.

During the entire event, models -- each dressed to symbolize one luxury aspect or another of Fan Pier -- stood motionless on small platforms. For "Food," a woman was poised biting in to a lobster. For "Shopping," one held a bouquet of roses and a red leather purse, surrounded by shopping bags from Neiman Marcus and Jimmy Choo. For " Spa," a blonde reclined in a tub overflowing with rose petals.

A red and white Volvo racing vessel cruised around the harbor, as business people, government officials, media types, and hangers-on listened to the thank-yous and heard the promises of Fan Pier, the 2.9-million-square-foot mixed use center that is slated to materialize on eight blocks along Northern Avenue over the next decade or so.

"I played street hockey on these parking lots," said City Councilor Michael Flaherty. "As a teenager I parked cars. This area has a great history and an even greater future."

Mary Benoit of Sales Directors Inc., who is handling Fan Pier marketing for the Fallon Co., put today's soiree together.
(By Thomas C. Palmer, Jr., Globe staff)
Posted by Boston Globe Business Team at 01:08 PM

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[lucky]

^ lucky, that rendering doesn't reflect what the actual buildings will look like. it is just a graphic to represent the respective heights and master layout of the project.

Really, well that's good news.

 

[statler]

^^ I don't know.
That is the image that is on the Fan Pier site and some of them look like the buildings that are shown on the Fallon Company site (click Project -> Fan Pier -> Office & Residential).

 

[lucky]

That's what I thought too. What concerns me is that this is the same company that gave us Park Lane and the Renaissance Hotel - and it seems they would be likely to put up more of that crap...unless someone does something.

That they are building the Northern Ave buildings first gives time to stop Fan Pier from looking like Park Lane. If they cover Fan Pier with that junk, I think it would be safe to say it would be huge mistake.

Huge.

 

[czsz]

Huh, that dock arrangement would really kill the point of the sloped window in the ICA's media room...

 

[statler]

Yes. yes it would.

WTF?

 

[Lrfox]

I emailed the ICA regarding the docks in front of the building... I'll post the response when (if?) i get it.

 

[lexicon506]

Huh, that dock arrangement would really kill the point of the sloped window in the ICA's media room...

I doubt the ICA is gonna let that happen, which is great since it's probably my favorite part of the building.

 

[statler]

Does the ICA own the land they are sitting on? I thought it was the developer's land. If so, they may not have a say.

 

[stellarfun]

Does the ICA own the land they are sitting on? I thought it was the developer's land. If so, they may not have a say.

Pritzker "donated" the land to the ICA as part of the deal to secure approval of Fan Pier. I'm pretty sure if you go back to the Pritzker Fan Pier designs you will see the jetty and small marina in them. So ICA knew what the surrounding environment would be like when they designed the museum; indeed, that's probably why the front is so bland.

 

[shiz02130]

We've seen more detailed renderings of the buildings that are to be built directly behind the ICA (and they looked pretty good, I think). They looked similar (but better) to the ones shown in this rendering of the entire site. I'll bet that those buildings next to the ICA are the only ones that have been designed and that the ones next to the courthouse are only massing studies.

 

[Rick]

Fan Pier

For a much larger version of the rendering, click on the URL below.
On that page, click on high res under the photo section.
(The buildings which have been designed are the 4 along Northern Blvd.)


http://home.businesswire.com/portal...A_GALLERY_PUBLIC_VIEW&eid=5502854&newsLang=en

 

[statler]

Fallon breaks ground on Fan Pier
Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman Journal staff

Banners have been advertising that "Fan Pier is Here" for months.

On Wednesday that statement finally came true when developer Joseph Fallon and local dignitaries held a groundbreaking ceremony for the first 500,000-square-foot office building on the South Boston waterfront site.

The design, permitting and development of Fan Pier has been in the making for 25 years and has been held up as one of the city's most ambitious and promising projects for decades. While the shovels only dug into a pile of dirt set up on pavement, the real digging will begin in several months time, insisted Fallon, who along with his partner, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., bought the property two years ago for $115 million.

Regardless, the fact that real progress is being made on the site, which is currently used as a parking lot, will encourage business to seriously consider locating an office on the harbor's edge.

"The fact of the groundbreaking has increased the pace of tenant activity substantially," said Stephen Lynch of CB Richard Ellis /Lynch Murphy Walsh Advisors, which is leasing the office portion of Fan Pier.

Lynch said since the marketing center opened on May 1 there have been at least two dozen prospective companies that have visited the site. When Lynch was asked if there were any signed leases to announce he said "not that we're reporting today" adding "we will have a tenant soon."

Until the groundbreaking, the public had little faith that Fan Pier would actually happen after years of stalled development, different owners and unfavorable market conditions held up the project. Office tenants, who are reportedly being asked to pay as much as $70 per square foot, wanted assurance Fallon's plan was a reality.

A number of commercial tenants are searching the Boston market for large blocks of space, which is getting harder and harder to come by as the downtown market continues to improve. By breaking ground ahead of other developers who have office projects in the works Fallon has a greater chance of landing an anchor tenant. The only other office building currently under construction in Boston is a 215,000-square-foot tower at Two Financial Center.

"Boston is still a 'show me' town and the start of construction is what a lot of tenants have been waiting to see," said Lynch.

The groundbreaking of the first building is just the beginning for the nearly 3 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, retail and public uses approved for the 21-acre waterfront parcel. Even still, it seems like a long time in the making, even for Fallon, who's only been involved with the project for two of the 25 years.

"I feel like I should be opening this building instead of starting construction," said Fallon.

Michelle Hillman can be reached at mhillman@bizjournals.com

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