1330 Boylston Street | Fenway

Still open.

(referring to Merper's comments about the Burger King closing)
 
Oh oh

IMG_1948.jpg
 
That is ugly but gives me hope that any development on the Burger King site will be built up against this building and not separated, thus forming a continuous street wall. This really isn't a problem.
 
yeah hopefully that disgusting wall was intentional knowing the BK would one day be redeveloped.
 
The other end of the building will have windows. Possibly they left this side windowless so as not to contend with Nimbys when the time comes to develop the Burger King site.
 
It's even uglier in person, (with rust stains on the concrete) but it is obvious that they are planning on the Burger King going away. When I walked down Boylston he other day I was struck by how in transition the street is. Burton's Grill (which is in the Trilogy) set up sidewalk seating, with very nice looking furniture, but looming over the seating is that giant "goodyear" sign...kind of ruins the ambiance!

I'm looking forward to seeing the gas stations and fast food places being redeveloped, because with them still there, the street is a bit of a mess.
 
If both sides of the street get redeveloped to the scale of Trilogy and 1330 Boylston, its gonna be an impressive street wall...
 
Regardless of what gets built next door that concrete wall is a big eyesore. I always wonder how, with all the comminity meetings, something like this gets through.

Maybe we'll soon see the worlds biggest mural or a giant electric sign there for the short term.
 
Maybe a Giant electronic sign showing how bad Whoppers are for you to force BK out of business
 
A developer in Somerville told me that state law prohibits having windows on the side wall of a building that is right at the property line, which I think this one is. Presumbly this is to protect the interest of the neighboring property owner.
 
Damn people, calm down. This is normal in construction and is perfectly fine. The owner will probably just rent out the space for a giant ad.
 
Ron is right - building codes prohibit putting windows on a building built up to a lot line (or even close to a lot line ... there is a formula for permissible window area even with a 10- or 15-foot setback). Think about it ... if there were a bunch of windows on this side, in the interests of fire safety, etc., you'd be severely limited on what you could build on the adjacent lot, and you'd need huge setbacks.

So this is a very good thing in the long run, if an eyesore in the medium run.

Signage on the blank wall in the near term may or may not be allowed temporarily ... but certainly isn't "by right" as the neighboring owner is perfectly within his rights to build up and make that invisible. Let's hope that happens sooner rather than later.
 
That wall is actually a highly fire-rated double thick party wall for the Fenway Community Health Center portion of the project. The intent in providing such a beefy wall is to facilitate development of the BK next door, in a timely fashion, since the cost of an appropriately rated party wall has already been absorbed. The mock-ups for the this project are sitting in a parking lot on Van Ness st. right now. /Had lunch with a buddy @ Elkus today.
 
Who owns that BK site (is it a developer or no)? That or the McD's is owned by the Red Sox right?
 
Sox are busy buyers

The Red Sox through a plethora of corporations and LLCs are buying quite a bit of the Fenway Park surroundings to both control development and to benefit from the proximity of the properties to Fenway Park

Westy
 
Yeah, I know that... hence my question...

Anyways, my point is thus: We know the Red Sox are buying up a ton of properties in the Red Sox area. And yet, we have not seen any development news or proposals come out of them or their subsidiaries regarding said properties. We know the Red Sox want to control development in the neighborhood and that they don't want high-rise developments near the park.

Considering the change in zoning to allow such developments a few years ago, it seems to me at least a distinct possibility that the Red Sox have no plans to develop these properties at all.


But the Red Sox are concerned about vanishing parking lots, said spokesman Doug Bailey . Redevelopment, he said, ``needs to be done in a measured, thoughtful way," and must include as much parking as space allows.
Click to expand...

http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2006/09/30/now_batting_fenway_area_remake/"

As this would quote would indicate.

And in the next paragraph, they indicate the Red Sox do indeed own that McDonald's, and yet there has been no indication from them of any redevelopment plans.

I think, if they do have such an anti-development policy, the only hope of it changing is the construction of the Rosenthal air rights project (and its huge parking garage).
 
But the Red Sox are concerned about vanishing parking lots, said spokesman Doug Bailey . Redevelopment, he said, ``needs to be done in a measured, thoughtful way," and must include as much parking as space allows.
Click to expand...
I'm concerned about declining muggings in New York. It needs to be done in a measured, thoughtful way, and must include opportunities for muggers to go on plying their trade.
 
Red Sox as developer

I think the Red Sox are buying sotto voce -- just as Harvard did in Alston ? in order to accumulate properties to trade with people who have development plans close to Fenway.

The Red Sox would like to control all of the properties and their uses in the "Fenway Park Family Entertainment Zone" -- that of course only exists in a conceptual manner.

But, you can be assured that they do want to develop. With a payroll approaching $200 M per year for the team, and with expenses for NASCAR racing, etc - -they need income in a big way. Making the vicinity of Fenway Park into a near 24 hour 365 entertainment district would provide the Red Sox with a continuing stream of income. I believe that this week they made some sort of announcement and I?m sure that over the next few months there will be a lot more.

Remember that Fenway Park turns 100 in 2012 and I?m sure they would like to have the complex ready to go for the summer of 2012 when Baseball Tourists will be making pilgrimages from throughout the US plus Japan, Korea, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba?, and the rest of the Caribbean, Central / South America


Westy
 
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