Blackstone buildings in line for ground floor rehabs.

[statler]

Blackstone in fancy entry? Tower power eyes upgrades
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Monday, July 9, 2007 - Updated: 05:11 AM EST

Boston?s Financial District, which largely goes dark after the evening rush hour, would get new restaurants and shops under a major overhaul being eyed by the Blackstone Group.
The New York buyout company, which recently acquired a bevy of downtown Boston office towers, is exploring a sweeping revamp of its newly acquired real estate empire, said real estate executives familiar with the planning.
In the works are an overhaul of the lobbies of several high-rises, with the aim of both spiffing up their street-level presence and, in some cases, adding valuable retail space, executives said.


One of Blackstone?s most eye-catching ideas involves adding retail space at 60 State St., where the Financial District meets the Faneuil Hall area. The concept, still in preliminary stages, would replace the small, bottom-floor restaurant space in the tower, occupied by Houston?s. That would be transformed into a two- to three-story, glass-encased retail complex looking out onto Faneuil Hall, according to an executive briefed on the idea.
Blackstone is also exploring a revamp of the lobby of State Street?s old headquarters, at 225 Franklin St. near the Post Office Square park, with the possibility of adding a restaurant and other amenities, executives said.
Another idea being explored, executives said, is enlarging the lobby in front of 150 Federal St., both making it more impressive and moving it closer to the street. Also under consideration is a revamp of the lobby at One Post Office Square, home to Putnam Investments.
A lobby and retail revamp is also in the works for One Memorial Drive in Cambridge as part of a lease deal that will give Microsoft Corp. its first major presence in the city, executives said. A health club and a cafe that would include outdoor seating would be added as part of the lease deal, real estate executives said.
All told, Blackstone could spend tens of millions on the array of upgrades. The planned improvements come as Blackstone and other landlords seek to cash in on a hot commmercial real estate market with higher rents.
?A lot of these lobbies are large,? said Jay Driscoll, a leasing executive at Cushman & Wakefield. ?If you can carve out a piece there, a corner here, a lot of retailers will pay a lot of money.?
Best known as one of the nation?s most aggressive private equity firms, Blackstone overnight became the nation?s largest office landlord with its $36 billion deal late last year for Equity Office Properties Trust.
?We are looking at all our assets and no final decisions will be made until communications with the city (Boston) are further along,? a statement by a spokeswoman for Blackstone said.

sbvanvoorhis@bostonherald.com

Link

 

[kz1000ps]

This is great news. Regarding:

60 State - its ground floor as is isn't atrocious, but there's so much untapped potential here, especially on the Congress Street side, where it currently offers a blank face to the tourists and a convenient spot for beggars to set up shop. I know it isn't possible to move the building, but there needs to be MUCH wider sidewalks on the Congress and State Street sides. New retail facing Fanieul Hall (and Congress St) will be an instant cash cow for both the landlord and tenant.

225 Franklin - there's a lot of space here that could be put to better use, including all those plazas that virtually surround it.

1 P.O. Square - this one has some underutilized space, but not as much as 225 F. Also, this has one of the most sumptuous '80s-vintage lobbies in town (you know, acres of rose-colored granite and marble, lots of brass) -- it's truly a riot to behold. I know the look is out of fashion right now, but if there's any lobby from that period that deserves preservation, I'd have to say it's this one.

150 Federal - The building (and lobby) wraps around 160 Fed, which makes for awkward space utilization, as there's the entrance corridor on Federal St that stretches for some 200 ft. before you get to the concierge desk and elevator banks (which are all much closer to the High St. entrance). I'm quite curious to see how the architects will manage to solve this problem.

One Main in Cambridge - considering that there's virtually no streetlife here, any changes Blackstone makes can only improve things drastically.

 

[czsz]

This is great news. I knew that Blackstone's sweeping buy-up would end the torpor that's been choking the Financial District. It all feels like that brassy pink-granite 80s lobby to me sometimes.

I know it isn't possible to move the building, but there needs to be MUCH wider sidewalks on the Congress and State Street sides.

State Street will always been cramped - it's part of the charm. But the obvious solution on the Congress side is to narrow the street, and remove the ridiculous brick-and-fence barrier in the middle.

 

[bosma]

60 State Street probably has the most unimpressive lobby of any high-rise in the city. The entrance is ugly, the lobby is only 1 story, and its tiny. The new entrance to the State Street Blue Line stop will be in 60 State on the Congress Street Side.

The expansion over Houstons would be a smart idea to fill in some of 60 State's vacant/unused plaza. However it would not be good if the filled in the area on the side of the building so people couldn't walk through.

I believe 225 Franklin's lobby has allot of space taken up by a bank and one side is dedicated to a street level loading dock which should be underground. It has an underground garage, I have always wondered why they didn't build the dock underground.

 

[kz1000ps]

As they currently exist:

225 Franklin, looking SE at the intersection of Franklin and Pearl Streets

Franklin Street plaza

(this one is from July '05)

the Pearl Street side.. it's unclear, but there's a roughly 15-foot-wide sunken plaza behind those planters that gets used for nothing

the High Street side looking east , with a garage entrance off of Pearl

same side, looking west now

and the Oliver Street side, looking south. The loading dock bosma spoke of only takes up a half to a third of the streetwall.

 

[kz1000ps]

One Post Office Square, Oliver Street side

Pearl Street side

 

[kz1000ps]

60 State, main entrance at State and Congress Streets

lobby

the Congress Street side

stairs leading up to the plaza on the building's north side

the Houstons restaurant that fronts onto the Fanieul Hall plaza

the north plaza

 

[atlantaden]

Beautiful pics kz!! As always, thanks so much for taking the time to take the pics, then posting them!! Your pics really add so much to this forum!! Atlanta might be booming with new buildings going up all over but......it will never be the urban city that Boston is. Mayors of most US cities would be thrilled to have half the downtown street life and activity that Boston has.

 

[bosdevelopment]

I like the food court downstairs there. I'm all about those deep fried raviolis.

 

[czsz]

Those buildings are among the worst in the Financial District...I'm glad they're the ones targeted by Blackstone.

 

[ablarc]

Suffering pedestrians. ^

 

[statler]

^^

That's why, when walking from P.O. Square to Faneuil Hall, I always cut through Liberty Square.
A little more indirect, but a much nicer journey.

 

[czsz]

Agreed. When I walk down that hill, I have to remind myself that the area is actually the very center of Boston and not some forgotten edge.

 

[Bobby Digital]

Agreed. When I walk down that hill, I have to remind myself that the area is actually the very center of Boston and not some forgotten edge.

thats a little extreme. people argue for density and an urban feeling... theres a tower right there, thats why the sidewalk sucks, if there was a small building and 10-20 yards of lawn there you'd still be bitchin.

its downtown... ive walked down that sidewalk at 10pm in a driving rain storm at 35 degrees blowin sideways. yea it sucks, but thats a downtown isnt it?

 

[Ron Newman]

The problem is that the tower doesn't relate to the adjoining sidewalk in any way. Also, the sidewalk is too narrow and the street too wide.

 

[czsz]

I have no problem with the fact that it's a tall tower. My problem is with the deadening effect it has on the sidewalk, the narrowness of the sidewalk itself (which has more to do with the unreasonable width of Congress Street), the similar problems affecting the other side of the street due to 28 State Street and Government Center, as well as the hideous vista down to the open space agglomeration of Dock Square, the Holocaust Memorial park, and the Government Center plazas, none really fully framed and each contributing to the others' lack of definition...the ugliness being compounded by the backdrop of the hideous vent stack/parking garage building over Haymarket Station.

 

[kz1000ps]

Here's a pleasant little surprise that materialized sometime over the weekend -- 1 Boston Place's ground floor is getting an overhaul as well, opening up most of the dead spots along its streetwall on its Washington and Court Street sides.

this is the Court Street (north) side

Washington Street (east) side

[/code]

 

[statler]

Edit

 

[Ron Newman]

Are they adding some sort of one-story glass-walled extension towards the street? If so, what will it contain?

 

[kz1000ps]

It appears that there's no extension of the building's footprint happening; rather, it's just a replacement of the existing granite walls with glass. It's hard to read in the second rendering I posted (showing the Wash St. side), but "tenant signage" is written on the awning over the newly created doorway.