Channel Center | Fort Point

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Seaport District to get new office tower

State Street Corp. is in, sources say

By Casey Ross | GLOBE STAFF MAY 05, 2012

The developer of the massive Channel Center complex in Boston’s Seaport District is proposing construction of an 11-story office building, public parks, and a parking garage, adding to the rapid redevelopment of the waterfront in recent years.

No major office tenant was named in plans released by the city on Friday. But sources with knowledge of the project have said State Street Corp. is negotiating a deal to move into the office building, which would be located at One Channel Center.

A spokeswoman for State Street said in a prepared statement Friday that the company has several leases expiring soon and is “pursuing various options to meet our business and workplace needs.’’

The developer of Channel Center, Commonwealth Ventures, did not respond to messages seeking comment. The company filed plans with the Boston Redevelopment Authority calling for a 525,000-square-foot office building, a nine-story parking garage, and two public parks. The firm said it hopes to begin construction by the end of year.

The complex, located off A Street, already includes more than 200 residential units, restaurants, stores, and offices in a series of former Boston Wharf Co. warehouses. The development of a large new office building would be a major boost for the complex and for the neighborhood, which has been renamed the Innovation District by Boston’s mayor, Thomas M. Menino.

The area has attracted scores of new businesses in the past two years, and continues to generate interest from a broad range of companies that want to relocate there. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is building a pair of large office buildings nearby at Fan Pier, one of the largest privately funded construction projects in the country.

A new building for State Street would also add considerable momentum to the office construction market in Boston, which all but died out during the recent economic downturn.

In the renderings released Friday, the office building at One Channel Center appears to be one large structure divided into two sections by a vertical glass column. The western section has terra-cotta colored facade, while the eastern portion is covered in dark brown panels. The building also includes a two-story pedestrian passageway connecting to a new 72,000-square-foot park.

State Street currently occupies office space in prominent commercial buildings across Boston and has several leases expiring in 2014. The company has offices at Copley Place, the Prudential Building, and the John Hancock Tower in the Back Bay; it also has offices at Lafayette Corporate Center in the Financial District. Its lease at its namesake headquarters building at One Lincoln Street expires in 2023. If it moves forward with the Channel Center deal, State Street would join Fidelity Investments and Manulife Financial as major financial companies on the waterfront, which also has attracted a range of technology and communications businesses.

Commonwealth Ventures purchased Channel Center in 2007 from Beacon Capital Partners for $21.5 million. Beacon had previously redeveloped about 30 percent of the property, but the firm abandoned the effort when the area’s renaissance proved slower than expected.

In recent years, the Fort Point area around Channel Center has seen steady redevelopment of its turn-of-the-century warehouse buildings, which have been converted into mixed-use properties with residences, boutique retail shops, and restaurants.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...mY0Aio9Y0ZwCoI8RO/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw


An 11-story office building warrants a 9-story parking garage and 2 public parks? The fuck is wrong with this place???
 
A parking garage as big as the building. Rofl. Sounds like some of Atlanta's city planners are doing some work for Boston now.
 
Valid point about the parking but if memory serves, this was always proposed to be parking. The owners in the two condo buildings down the street at 25-35 Channel Center park on the street but were promised garage parking "once built".
 
^JohnAKeith

The condo buildings share below grade parking beneath 15, 25 and 35 Channel Center. The 100 Acres Plan anticipated below grade parking with the new project at One Channel Center, but this project will be approved with a 9-story parking garage.

The BRA has published the docs (Notice of Project Change) for this project.

http://bostonredevelopmentauthority...rojects.asp?action=ViewProject&ProjectID=1509
 
How are the parks' maintenance fund? By the developers? Does this apply to any new parks that are required for development? Because if not, I can't wait to hear how the city will be able to afford maintaining all the new parks going up.
 
Wow, the building actually looks pretty good. Even the garage has some sort of skin to it.

ADD seems to be in this alucobond phase... MassArt, now this.
 
Is there a render of this somewhere? Both links in the thread do not lead to any images.
 
7164386102_29792150bb_z.jpg
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0504-One-Channel-Center-Commonwealth-Ventures-rendering-550 by snagshead67, on Flickr[/IMG]
Is there a render of this somewhere? Both links in the thread do not lead to any images.
 
Bastard child of the Fargo Building and Kingston St. Edison Substation.
 
Sicil, how was the 9 story parking garage approved despite the South Boston parking freeze? Did they have to prove that the garage was an ancillary use to the office building or something?
 
No the garage if off to the right. You can see a bit of it along the the right side of the picture.
 
Public parks are to be funded and maintained by private property owners.

I don't know how these parking spaces were exactly accommodated in the SB Parking Freeze, although below grade parking was anticipated here in 2005-2006 with approval of 100 Acres. To people who live in the Seaport, the Parking Freeze has never been really frozen -- it's somewhat of a running joke. In one notable instance, a 600+ car parking garage was approved (and built) because a parking lot was temporarily taken for I-90 CA/Tunnel. When CA/Tunnel was completed, the parking lot was restored (with 1000+ spaces), and the owner kept the 600+ car garage.

BTW, for those interested in renderings of the project, parking garage and park, the BRA Notice of Project Change PDF has a number of new drawings.
 
A quality design, but to call it a tower is overstating.
 

Haha true but it's a decent design nonetheless. I'll take a shorter building of some quality over the rest of the "towers" that have been going up in the area.
 
Yup, I got psyched out by the headline too. Oh well, I got to imagine a soaring tower amongst all the old warehouses for a bit, and it was rather enjoyable.

Meanwhile, in shitty old reality, what I see looks decent so far, but this building seems to suffer from what other recent office projects (Fan Pier, Atlantic Wharf) have come down with: borderline schizophrenia. Let's take a little of this idea, throw in a bit of that design language, add some undulations, and presto! Despite this approach, FP and AW also manage to be total dullards...I mean who's ever heard of a boring schizo? Can we haz maybe one good design concept instead of 14 mediocre ones plz?
 
While the renderings above are attractive and convenient, much isn't available for public review in the Boston Globe, Herald, etc.

The BRA's approved Channel Center Master Plan was the subject of 15 months of public process (meetings, press events, fanfare etc.), providing the necessary zoning relief to allow for massing of new construction across the project.

The Master Plan required subgrade parking.

From PDA Master Plan #53:

OjDmb.png


And here is what was filed and is quietly moving through approvals, no press discussing the revision, one public meeting required prior to approval of the Notice of Project Change:

GNHnI.png


This 9-story 300,000 square foot parking garage offers nothing at pedestrian level — four dead streetwalls, no active uses (retail/restaurant/civic) at ground floor. The parking garage will face Fort Point's first recreational park.

As for active uses the 525,000 square foot One Channel Center project proposes only one small cafe (9,000 square feet) at one corner of the building, with doors to the cafe available only from the interior lobby of the building. The remaining 90% of the four sides of the building have no doors for active uses, aside from a single pedestrian passageway from one side of the building to the park on the other side — subject to closure at the discretion of the property owner and tenant (State Street).
 

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