Berklee Expansion Plans | Back Bay

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St. Cecilia's Puts Park Up for Sale

St. Cecilia's Church may have answered the Berklee Colelge of Music's prayers.

The parish is selling an 11,000 square foot park that abuts the college, which has been trying desperately to acqure more property for a major campus expansion.

The small park with a grotto of the Virgin Mary is across Scotia Street from teh church and is bounded by the Mass Pike and Cambria Street.

The property is being marketed by Meredith & Grew, which in a promotional brochure released last week describes the sale as "a rare opportunity to acquire a development site in the heart of the Back Bay."

Broker James Elcock said the church has not set a target price for the property, nor does it intend to place any restrictions on the use of the land or the size of any building, beyond zoning limits. The height limit for the parcel is 65 feet "as of right" and 100 feet with additional review.

Berklee's interest in the site goes back at least five years, said David Hornfischer, the college's vice president for administration and finance. "It's been a complicated issue with the parish and the archdiocese," he said. Now that the property has gone on the market, Hornfischer said that Berklee intends to make a strong bid for the land.

"I think at the end of the day, the market will realize that Berklee is the highest and most practical use for the property, and I hope the church will each the same conclusion," Hornfischer said. He added that the neighborhood task force providing input on the college's expansion plans has encouraged it to look into the St. Cecilia plot.

Hornfischer said the parcel could be developed separately for campus housing, or that it could be incorporated into a plan for a 400,000 square foot tower at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. In this case, the larger floor plate for the building could allow Berklee to reduce its height, a prospect that would likely be welcomed by the task force. (Such a plan could involve acquiring a protion of not only Cambria Street, as the current tower envisions, but also St. Cecilia Street).

Mark Lippolt, a member of St. Cecilia's Parish Council, said that the decision to sell the property was made at the parish level and was unrelated to the Boston Archdiocese's financial woes.

"This piece of land was underutilized to a great degree. We have a beautiful building but a physical plant that is well in excess of 100 years old," said Lippolt, who is the chief administrative officer for Coldwell Banker New England. "Because we are a growing parish, we concluded we should look at this plot of land to fund improvements."

State Rep. Marty Walz, who is a member of the Berklee task force, said that the St. Cecilia property could be "a great opportunity" for the college.

She cautioned, however, that if another developer acquires the land, it could complicate an already complex jigsaw of parcels. "This what we've been askinga ll along, that the intersection of Mass Ave. and Boylston be developed comprehensively and not piecemeal, and this includes Berklee's land and the turnpike air rights parcels," she said.

Should it not be able to purchase the St. Cecilia property, Hornfischer said that Berklee would also have a lot to say about a possible neighbor. "If there's any kind of height there, the developer would have to deal with us as an unhappy abutter," he said.

Hornfischer added another reason Berklee would be a natural fit for the site: Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music.
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According to the latest Boston Courant, Berklee is rethinking its plan for a 35-story dorm due to the (surprise!) overwhelmingly negative reaction the idea received from neighbors. The hope now is that Berklee wins the St Cecilia's parcel and spreads the development out among multiple sites.
 
Bankers & Tradesman said:
Berklee?s Tower Plan Didn?t Hit the Right Notes for Some
By Thomas Grillo
Reporter
BerkleeCollegeofMusic.jpg

B&T staff photo by Thomas Grillo
The Berklee College of Music has withdrawn its plan for a 35-story tower in Boston?s Back Bay.

Berklee School of Music?s plan for a 35-story tower in Boston?s Back Bay neighborhood has hit a sour note.

David Hornfischer, the college?s vice president for administration and finance, withdrew the proposal last week following months of discussion with the Berklee Task Force. The 16-member panel, comprised of representatives from neighborhood groups, was appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to advise City Hall and the Boston Redevelopment Authority on the concept.

?The task force told us loud and clear that our proposal was too dense and too tall for that location and they asked us to consider other sites,? Hornfischer said. ?The whole project is in flux right now.?

Last year, Berklee proposed a high-rise that would have replaced a pair of buildings the school owns at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. Under the plan, the Berklee Performance Center and a 2-story academic building that once housed State Street Bank would have been razed and replaced with Berklee Crossroads, a 450,000-square-foot facility with 600 dormitory beds, two new theaters and a student center.

But reaction from the neighborhood was swift. While task force members support the idea of housing more students on campus, many feared the $120 million high-rise would have been out of scale for the neighborhood

Hornfischer told the panel that he is in discussions with the nearby Church of Christ, Scientist, about purchasing a pair of buildings on lower Massachusetts Avenue. If the church were willing to sell the 2-story properties, Berklee would consider a plan that would raze those buildings and replace them with two 6- to 10-story facilities.

In addition, he noted, Berklee is one of four finalists to purchase an 11,000-square-foot lot on Cambria Street adjacent to the college that is owned by St. Cecilia?s Church. If the school were the successful bidder, Berklee would consider expanding its campus on the site, he added.

During a two-hour task force meeting last week, Hornfischer asked the panel members if they would write a letter to St. Cecilia?s in favor of Berklee?s bid for the parcel.

While several panelists said they approve of the idea, Boston City Councilor Michael Ross said any support for the purchase should hinge on Berklee?s commitment to sell the property it owns at 98 Hemenway St. to a developer willing to convert the dorms into condominiums. The idea, he said, is to boost the number of homeowners in the Fenway neighborhood. Today, the homeownership rate in the neighborhood is about 50 percent, among the lowest in the city, he noted.

Ross cited data that shows 2,155 Berklee students live off campus. Of that number, 894 live in the Fenway, according to statistics the school provided to the city. The report also found that nearly 11 percent of Fenway residents are undergraduate students who live in the neighborhood.

?Fenway has the largest amount of students and it?s the most impacted neighborhood,? Ross said. ?If our goal is to pull students out of the neighborhood and put them into dorms, it won?t happen because if Berklee sells any of [its] buildings, another institution will come along and buy it. If 98 Hemenway is sold, and Berklee has said [it is] hoping to sell it, we should make sure that this property becomes residential housing and not dorms for another school.?

Dorms a Priority

Timothy Horn, a task force member from the Fenway Civic Association, supported Ross? suggestion.

?We need homeowners who are invested in the Fenway neighborhood,? Horn noted.

Other members of the panel were sympathetic. But some opposed Ross? motion to a write a letter to the church that would support the sale only if Berklee agreed to sell the 98 Hemenway property for a condo conversion only.

Hornfischer said the school?s first goal is to find space for its students who live off campus. He said the school has been having conversations with the Fenway Community Development Corp., a nonprofit housing developer, about the possibility of buying 98 Hemenway if and when the school has more student housing.

?It sounds great and we?d like to do it, but we have to get on with building some dorms first,? he said.

Berklee?s enrollment has increased by 40 percent over the last decade to 4,000 undergraduate students. At the same time, the school?s space grew by a modest 14 percent. The expansion would include student centers, an improved technology wing and more performance and practice space. Only 800 students live on campus in three dorms and the goal is to house 2,000.

Founded in 1945, Berklee College of Music calls itself the world?s largest independent music college for the study of contemporary music. The college has nearly 4,000 students and 460 faculty members. Among Berklee?s most prominent alumni are producer/arranger Quincy Jones, singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge, Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen and guitarist and ?Tonight Show? bandleader Kevin Eubanks.

The task force is expected to meet again early next year.
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NLA
 
This is one topic I can't argue with any NIMBY's.... who really wants a 35 story building full of college kids next door, outside of other college kids and late night pizza places? I graduated school not too long ago and even I would never want that many college kids around.
 
...Berklee is in discussions with the nearby Church of Christ, Scientist, about purchasing a pair of buildings on lower Massachusetts Avenue. If the church were willing to sell the 2-story properties, Berklee would consider a plan that would raze those buildings and replace them with two 6- to 10-story facilities.
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Yes! Those two-story buildings are ugly and they leave Mass Ave. feeling wide open.

For those unsure of the location, this is on the eastern side of the road just south of Berklee's existing campus and north of the CSC publishing building/Eddy Library. They're prime candidates for redevelopment, and would do much to give Mass Ave. a streetwall befitting of its width. Plus, it will make the walk down the street towards the Mother Church much more dramatic, as it won't be visible until you're within a block of it.

They're the dink structures dead-center:
dscf0062xw6.jpg
 
Suffolk 83 said:
This is one topic I can't argue with any NIMBY's.... who really wants a 35 story building full of college kids next door, outside of other college kids and late night pizza places? I graduated school not too long ago and even I would never want that many college kids around.
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I don't understand. This proposal isn't "next door" to any housing that isn't already saturated with students. The closest I can think of is 360 Newbury, and I'm sure the people who bought there knew fully well what they were getting into. Point is, there's already "that many college kids around," so how will a dorm tower make things worse?

And nowhere did Berklee say they'd expand enrollment by however many dorm units they planned to build, so concentrating them in a tower should allow for more rental units to be available for lower-income adults & families, condo conversions to get homeowners back in the area, ect.
 
Yes, I'd much rather have those ugly 1- and 2-story buildings replaced than the Berklee Performance Center (ex-Fenway Theatre). And I think the Christian Scientists are eager to unload excess real estate, anyay.
 
Berklee rethinks expansion
Forgoes disputed plan, seeks to buy other parcel

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | December 21, 2007

In the face of strong neighborhood opposition, Berklee College of Music is shelving plans for a high-rise dormitory and theater complex at the junction of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street and is instead seeking to buy a parcel from a neighboring church to divide its expansion into smaller parts.

The Back Bay college was poised to file long-range plans with city officials for a 35-story, approximately $200 million building to house some 600 students, but recently tabled the proposal. Instead, the college has made an offer on a quarter-acre tract from St. Cecilia Parish so it can build two smaller developments that are more to the neighbors' liking.

"The college needs to grow, but the only land we have is at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Boylston," said David Hornfischer, Berklee's senior vice president for administration and finance. "It's not like we have 40 acres out back like Babson or Bentley [colleges] might have. The St. Cecilia site couldn't be a better location, and would give us the room to build two smaller-scale buildings."

Hornfischer said St. Cecilia's decision to sell part of its property, coupled with neighborhood opposition, led the college to drop the high-rise dorm plans for now. The proposed dormitory, which would replace the Berklee Performance Center and a two-story academic building, would help the 4,000-student college double the size of its campus over the next decade and provide housing for half its student body.

Back Bay and Fenway neighbors said they were pleased Berklee had put the high-rise plans on hold and urged college officials not to revisit them. The building would be out of scale with the neighborhood, they said.

"I think they got the message," said Susan Ashbrook, a Back Bay resident and cochairwoman of a community task force that has been reviewing Berklee's preliminary plans over the past year. "It was made very clear to them they would have a fight on their hands if they built anything as big as they were floating."

Several other colleges in the Boston area have announced plans for expansions, including Boston College, Harvard University, and the University of Massachusetts at Boston. In all three cases, neighbors are fighting aspects of the proposals.

State Representative Martha Walz, who represents the Back Bay and is a task force member, said the 35-story plan was "unacceptable to the Back Bay and Fenway communities." She urged Berklee to explore other options, including building over the Massachusetts Turnpike.

"All those uses, at that height and that location is inappropriate," she said, referring to the high-rise dorm plan. "We think there's a tremendous opportunity to develop over the turnpike and that's what we've been strongly urging them to pursue. Let's spread out the uses so it's an appropriate scale."

Hornfischer said building on top of the Turnpike was a complicated process requiring a range of government approvals that would take years, an untenable prospect for a college that needs to expand soon.

He said that in addition to the church property, the college is looking into acquiring several parcels along Massachusetts Avenue as alternatives to the high-rise plan, but has not ruled out that proposal despite the task force's opposition. "That's our fallback position," he said.

Hornfischer said the college's plans were tentative and subject to change as circumstances dictate. He said the original expansion plan, which includes a theater, performance space, and practice rooms, needs to be realized in some form.

"This is critical to the college," he said. "It's just a matter of figuring out the best way to do it."

Jackie Yessian, chairwoman of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, praised the college for heeding neighborhood concerns and exploring alternatives to the high-rise plan. "They are trying really hard to meet their needs and ours as well," she said.

Source:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/12/21/berklee_rethinks_expansion/
 
Berklee kids don't really strike me as the 'let's-have-keg-tossing-contest-from-the-roof-of-the-dorm' frat boy type.

I guess that's why they are playing up the height and 'character of the neighborhood' angle.

Also..If you you want them to build over the Pike, use your pull and clout to help them expedite the permitting process. It's a win-win.
 
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This is hilarious.

Everyone wants them to replace their high-rise with a building at St Cecilia's ...

THAT LOT IS 1/4 OF AN ACRE!!!!
 
^^ They'll just have to dig a really, really deep basement!
 
Berklee kids don't really strike me as the 'let's-have-keg-tossing-contest-from-the-roof-or-the-dorm' frat boy type.
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Surely all that experimental jazz and Second Vienna School atonal nonsense emanating from the 34th floor would have kept people awake on Marlborough Street, though.
 
I went to Berklee recently. Well that really has nothing to do with anything. But NIMBY's are complaining that there shouldn't be a 30 story tower at the intersection of Mass Ave and Boylston? What fantasy land to they live in. Its maybe the epicter of Boston, not some pristine forrest. And Berklee is one of the coolest things in Boston, trust me. They should have a flag ship building with a new beutiful perfomance center. Boston's music scene would be much worse with out it there. NIMBY's need to realize they only own (or rent) their appt/condo, they don't own the city. Not to mention that would get more college studen't in dorms and out of apptments. I'm sorry but I really kind of hate NIMBY's. Cities are urban deal with it or move to the burbs.
 
czsz said:
Surely all that experimental jazz and Second Vienna School atonal nonsense emanating from the 34th floor would have kept people awake on Marlborough Street, though.
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LOL... I like to call that stuff "blustery hooplah."
 
Berklee kids don't really strike me as the 'let's-have-keg-tossing-contest-from-the-roof-or-the-dorm' frat boy type.
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That's because it's a lot harder to toss a keg when you're completely baked :)

But seriously, the "dorm" aspect has very little to do with the NIMBY's complaint. They didn't want the Boylston SQ development which was just across the street. It's too bad, because the NIMBYs should pick their battles wisely. They might not like the height (lord knows why), but they would get the Pike covered.
 
BOSTON-Continuing to jockey for expansion room in the tight Back Bay, the Berklee College of Music has purchased three commercial buildings here for a combined price of $24.7 million. Totaling approximately 75,000 sf of retail and office space, the assets had been under long-term ownership to local investor Arnold Mason.

The buildings ?are an important strategic purchase for us,? Berklee VP for real estate William Whitney tells GlobeSt.com. The properties at 155, 159-165 and 167-171 Massachusetts Ave. are ?the corner of Main and Main for Berklee?s campus,? notes Whitney. The school already occupies space in 155 Massachusetts Ave. for faculty offices and the ground floor and basement of 167-171 Massachusetts Ave. for student rehearsal studios. There are several commercial tenants in the office space, while the retail includes a Dunkin? Donuts, Wendy?s and Thai restaurant.

The purchases are not wholly unexpected, according to a member of the Berklee College Task Force. Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, says the task force was apprised that Berklee is pursuing real estate near its campus at 1140 Boylston St., but says she had not heard of specific properties or what uses are envisioned. And while the scope of the school?s master plan is still being defined, Mainzer-Cohen praises the acquisitions. ?In my mind, it?s good news,? she says, adding, ?they definitely have community support for purchasing and developing new space.?

Mainzer-Cohen notes, for example, that the task force sent a letter to a local church asking it to sell a strategic parcel to the college. And while a proposed expansion on a school-owned property at Boylston St. and Massachusetts Ave. was criticized for being too large, Mainzer-Cohen says she anticipates Berklee will make another attempt to build there in the future. In the meantime, Mainzer-Cohen says she anticipates the recent purchases will be reviewed at the next task force meeting.

Berklee paid $18.5 million to acquire 155 and 159-165 Massachusetts Ave., while another $6.2 million was spent for 167 -171 Massachusetts Ave. Arnold Mason was unavailable for comment regarding the sale of his properties, but his family still owns several commercial and residential developments in Greater Boston under the Mason Management Co. flag. Mason?s ownership of the buildings bought by Berklee date back to 1983 and possibly earlier. Berklee was advised on the purchase of the buildings by Sandy Tierney, an EVP at McCall & Almy, a Boston-based real estate advisory firm.

Founded in 1945, the Berklee College of Music has exploded during the past decade, emerging as an internationally acclaimed musical institution with more than 3,800 students and 460 faculty members. The Back Bay campus already features a 1,200-seat performance theater at 136 Massachusetts Ave. in addition to classrooms, dormitories and offices. The school is likely to expand in the buildings just acquired as space becomes available, says Whitney, but he stresses there are no set plans for that or any thoughts on whether the school might consider development at the new holdings.
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Source: Growing Music College Makes $25M Buy - By Joe Clements, GlobeSt.com
 
I'd like to see Berklee expand further down Mass. Ave. into commercial property currently owned by the Christian Science Church. Berklee is trying to expand, while the church is trying to reduce its real estate holdings. Seems like a natural match.
 
A joint-venture with a developer could also be a win-win, but we already know that the neighbors are height-adverse, and that will surely befoul any otherwise grand plan.
 
Yes, a good idea to extend down Mass Ave.

The Church owns the Midtown Hotel, btw, if I remember correctly.
 
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