60 Kilmarnock St | Fenway

Retail in Boston is in a c o n t r a c t i o n. You can't add retail to every/every other 4-5 story thing popping up. It's not possible + ain't going to happen.

And it's a good thing; be happy. i'm happy retail isn't in near collapse to the point where it's openly called a crisis. Yet, the business environment is already creating hardships that have put business owners, and the quality of life and consumer choices at grave risk in this City.

You really sort of could add ground level retail at that rate, as long as suburban style retail keeps dying out like it is.

Thing is, I noticed right before the last recession lots of restaurants and shops closing not due to financial issues, but the owners just feeling it was a good time to cash in and retire. I've been noticing the same thing lately. Good chance a recession is on the horizon and these small business owners seem to have a sixth sense about this.

So retail might not be a real winner in a year or two no matter what, but right now ground floor retail in mixed use development is killing malls and strip malls.
 
The taxi lot at Kilmarnock and Queensberry is currently completely empty (for the first time in memory) and the garage on Kilmarnock is boarded up.

Looks like moves are being made.
 
60-Kilmarnock-Street.png

“60 Kilmarnock to bring 435 residential units to Fenway, support affordable housing with $6M contribution and 37 on-site income-restricted units”
https://bostonrealestatetimes.com/multifamily-projects-totaling-559-units-in-mattapan-east-boston-south-boston-and-fenway-move-forward/


Awesome this is approved, this looks amazing and fits the neighborhood perfect.





























What a perfect development.
 
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And with that, all retail space has been removed.
Yeah, it's a shame. This should have wrapped Restaurant Row around the corner.

Tapestry closed last August, and is now suing Cabot Cabot & Forbes as they never got their $1.5 million lease buy-out. Hidyan closed even before that. Those spaces have now sat vacant for more than a year to make way for this project, but it still looks to be months (years?) away from breaking ground. And when it's all done, we won't get any of the retail back. At least K Street gets to keep its space.

This summer would have been the perfect time to build this thing; the garages and parking lots weren't getting Red Sox parking revenue anyway.
 
I just walked past this Monday- The storefronts on Kilmarnock st look like absolute shit as well, I hope for the sake of the neighborhood they get moving on this project soon
 
Construction fencing was actively being up around the site today and some small equipment was on site presumably for demo
Interestingly there’s no construction fencing up around the former Tapestry space on the W side of Kilmarnock, but everything on the E side of Kilmarnock is fenced.

I’m happy that demo looks imminent for the dilapidated old garages, and if the part of the project on the W side of the street is paused (and brought back later with different architecture + retail) that could be an extra win. It always seemed architecturally lazy that the two separate buildings on opposite sides of the street got identical designs.
 
Interestingly there’s no construction fencing up around the former Tapestry space on the W side of Kilmarnock, but everything on the E side of Kilmarnock is fenced.

I’m happy that demo looks imminent for the dilapidated old garages, and if the part of the project on the W side of the street is paused (and brought back later with different architecture + retail) that could be an extra win. It always seemed architecturally lazy that the two separate buildings on opposite sides of the street got identical designs.

I found some confirmation of planned project phasing in from the latest “Cooperation Agreement” posted to the BPDA website a couple weeks ago:
The Applicant anticipates commencing construction of the East Site Component in the fourth quarter of 2020, to be completed by the second quarter of 2023. The Applicant anticipates that development of the West Site Component will follow completion of the East Site Component, thereby commencing in the second quarter of 2023 with anticipated completion in the second quarter of 2025.
So work won't start on the old Tapestry building (it’s being used as a construction field office for now) until ~mid-2023, if everything goes according to plan.

Also, K Street is set up in a temporary modular building behind the old Tapestry building, then will move into space in the "East Site Component" once that is done.
 
The gararge on Kilmarnock (behind "Restaurant Row" on Peterborough) is gone:

















The garage on Queensberry is starting to come down:





The taxpayer retail at the corner of Kilmarnock and Queensberry is still standing.
 

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