Landmark plan puts 7 floors of offices on parking garage
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Abbey Group?s David and Robert Epstein, part owners of the Boston Celtics, are eyeing a major expansion of Fenway?s giant Landmark Center.
The pair of longtime Hub builders made a splash in the 1990s with their successful revamp of the troubled Sears building into the booming Landmark retail, cinema and office complex.
Now Abbey and the Epsteins are looking at plans to build more than 270,000 square feet of new office space atop the Landmark Center?s central parking garage. That would add as many as seven stories atop an existing, multistory parking structure, according to a pair of neighborhood activists briefed by David Epstein, the firm?s president and chief operating officer. He could not be reached for comment.
The proposal is receiving mixed reviews from the neighborhood.
Carl Nagy-Koechlin, executive director of the Fenway Community Development Corp., said he likes what he has seen so far.
One key selling point is what the project won?t include - additional parking. The nonprofit development group has spent years promoting increased use of public transportation and the redevelopment of the neighborhood?s vast expanse of parking lots.
?My first impression was quite positive,? Nagy-Koechlin said. ?It brings jobs, economic activity to the neighborhood.?
More wary, though, is Jack Creighton, president of the Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association, which lives in the shadow of the Landmark Center.
The project, as currently discussed, would go far above the four-story limit the neighborhood group has sought for buildings next to Audubon Circle. There are also concerns that the project could clog neighborhood streets with traffic.
?We feel it overwhelms the neighborhood,? Creighton said.
Abbey?s tentative proposal marks the latest in a series of big projects taking shape around Fenway Park [map]. Residential high-rises are replacing fast-food joints and gas stations on Boylston Street, with new restaurants also opening in and around the ballpark.
Link
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Abbey Group?s David and Robert Epstein, part owners of the Boston Celtics, are eyeing a major expansion of Fenway?s giant Landmark Center.
The pair of longtime Hub builders made a splash in the 1990s with their successful revamp of the troubled Sears building into the booming Landmark retail, cinema and office complex.
Now Abbey and the Epsteins are looking at plans to build more than 270,000 square feet of new office space atop the Landmark Center?s central parking garage. That would add as many as seven stories atop an existing, multistory parking structure, according to a pair of neighborhood activists briefed by David Epstein, the firm?s president and chief operating officer. He could not be reached for comment.
The proposal is receiving mixed reviews from the neighborhood.
Carl Nagy-Koechlin, executive director of the Fenway Community Development Corp., said he likes what he has seen so far.
One key selling point is what the project won?t include - additional parking. The nonprofit development group has spent years promoting increased use of public transportation and the redevelopment of the neighborhood?s vast expanse of parking lots.
?My first impression was quite positive,? Nagy-Koechlin said. ?It brings jobs, economic activity to the neighborhood.?
More wary, though, is Jack Creighton, president of the Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association, which lives in the shadow of the Landmark Center.
The project, as currently discussed, would go far above the four-story limit the neighborhood group has sought for buildings next to Audubon Circle. There are also concerns that the project could clog neighborhood streets with traffic.
?We feel it overwhelms the neighborhood,? Creighton said.
Abbey?s tentative proposal marks the latest in a series of big projects taking shape around Fenway Park [map]. Residential high-rises are replacing fast-food joints and gas stations on Boylston Street, with new restaurants also opening in and around the ballpark.
Link
