Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower
Copley Place expansion plans revving up
By Brendan Lynch
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The expansion of Copley Place, on hold since the middle of the Great Recession, appears to be back on track.
Indiana-based mall owner and developer Simon Property Group had planned a 47-story tower with 280 luxury condos, a 54,000 square-foot expansion of Neiman-Marcus, and 60,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurant space, but concerns over the economy shelved the project in February 2009.
A Boston Redevelopment Authority spokesperson said Simon is reintroducing the project, which is pending city approval, to the neighborhood at a meeting today now that the economy has improved.
Simon spokesperson Les Morris declined to give specifics on any changes the project might have undergone since the Indiana developer, which owns several local malls, put it on hold in 2009.
?Simon Property Group is looking forward to continuing work on the Copley Place Expansion Project,? Morris said in a statement. ?Boston is in the forefront of the nation?s economic recovery and Simon wants to fulfill its vision for Copley Place.?
James Hill, chairman of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, said he hadn?t heard anything since the project stalled in 2009, and the group would wait to take a position until after the meeting.
The neighborhood group raised concerns about the project two years ago, among them the proposed tower?s effect on the area?s sunlight.
?You can?t mitigate darkness,? he said. ?Either the sun shines or it doesn?t.?
The tower?s height isn?t the association?s only concern, however. Hill said the project?s mix of retail and other uses on the ground level was a concern as was the amount of traffic ? cars, trains and pedestrians ? that would be attracted to the neighborhood.
?Everyone just assumes that transit has the capacity,? he said.
Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, which represents area businesses, also said she hasn?t heard of any changes, and added she was happy to see the public process restarted.
?This is exactly the kind of development and exactly the kind of growth we want to see here in the city of Boston,? she said.
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