Builder?s eye on the skies
Copley Place tower weighed
By Scott Van Voorhis
Thursday, September 6, 2007
A new tower that would soar over Back Bay?s Copley Place mall is under consideration by the retail complex?s owner, local officials and an executive familiar with the planning said.
Simon Property Group, which is working with local project manager RF Walsh Project Management, is weighing options for redeveloping the Neiman Marcus site at the corner of Stuart and Dartmouth streets, officials said.
The tower, according to one concept under review, would soar into the 45- to 49-story range, said state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay). The proposal calls for condos and retail stores, including a redeveloped and expanded Neiman Marcus.
A spokesman for the project would not comment on the details.
While no plans have been filed yet with City Hall, any tower approaching 50 stories would likely be hotly debated in the neighborhood. Such a tower would rival the neighborhood?s twin pillars, the Hancock Tower and the Prudential.
The tower also comes with a number of other high-rise proposals pending. A city-appointed panel that oversees development of the Prudential Center was scheduled to meet last night to discuss two new towers at the Pru campus, an office high-rise on Boylston Street and a residential tower around the corner on Exeter.
Berklee College of Music, meanwhile, is weighing plans for a high-rise dorm in the neighborhood.
The Clarendon, a new luxury condo and apartment tower, is under construction a short walk from Copley Place in one direction and the posh new Mandarin Oriental condo and hotel tower, nearing completion itself, is in the other.
?You can?t look at all these things individually as if they were in a vacuum,? Walz said. ?It?s very clear there is a sudden spurt of activity in this part of the city that needs to be thought through in a broader context than just project by project.?
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