Update on Sound Musuem practice space and Boston Light and Sound properties. I’m not totally clear from the article if the city has agreed.
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From BBJ:
“IQHQ Inc. has purchased a building about a quarter-mile from its proposed Brighton lab facility as potential replacement rehearsal space for the musicians soon to be kicked off the life sciences developer's property.
The California-based development firm acquired 290 N. Beacon St. from the owners of the audio and video systems business Boston Light and Sound for $18 million, according to a deed posted online Thursday. Boston Light and Sound, a long-established vendor at top film festivals like Sundance, is based out of the location.
IQHQ unveiled plans last year to build more than 350,000 square feet of lab and office space down the road at 155 North Beacon St., which is now home to the Sound Museum, a popular music rehearsal space and recording studio and one of the few affordable options for Boston musicians.
IQHQ reportedly said months ago that it intended to relocate the rehearsal space before tearing down the building, but ultimately told the Sound Museum to leave the property by Jan. 31 without replacement space lined up.
The city of Boston said last week that IQHQ had bought an Allston-Brighton property with the intention of giving it to the city as a replacement for the Sound Museum, but it had declined to identify the property’s location.
Even with the acquisition, the Sound Museum’s customers may be without rehearsal space for the foreseeable future.
The Boston Light and Sound property at 290 N. Beacon St. will need to be reconfigured. The city and the Boston Planning and Development Agency are reviewing IQHQ’s proposal to hand over the property, a city spokesperson said last week. The use of the property as rehearsal space is tied to the BPDA approving IQHQ’s lab project, which has not yet happened.
The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture said in a statement Thursday that it and the BPDA are “working urgently” to find temporary space for the musicians in the time between their eviction from the Sound Museum and the opening of the new rehearsal studio. It said that “specific options are on the table” without naming them.
But in an email Friday, Sound Museum co-owner Katherine Desmond said the city had rejected IQHQ's "amazingly generous offer to relocate and rebuild" the Sound Museum. She pins the responsibility for the displacement of the rehearsal space's 325 or so tenants on the city: "the city insisted they get a free building in Allston Brighton or nothing, to the detriment of our tenants and the 4 family businesses of ours housed at 155 N. Beacon Street."
"In the meantime, we are heartbroken to have to tell our tenants that the city did not negotiate in their best interest by choosing to get free real estate and leave the very tenants they supposedly negotiated this building for on the streets for who knows how long without a place to work," Desmond said. "We appreciate that IQHQ tried to do the actual only sane and sensible thing to keep the musicians housed without interruption by offering to rebuilding us, but they ultimately had to work with what the city wanted as part of their development process."
An IQHQ spokesperson declined to comment.
The 290 N. Beacon St. building has one floor and is over 34,000 square feet, with a mix of office, warehouse and storage space. The property is located near the I-90 underpass on North Beacon Street.
Boston Light and Sound is still operating out of the building for now. The business plans to move to another location at some point, though it may not be in Brighton or Boston, said Jeremy Freid, a broker at 128CRE that worked with Boston Light and Sound on the transaction. He named the Route 128 or 495 submarkets as possibilities. Boston Light and Sound's owners bought the building in 1997.”