Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

Great how much better this looks now; terrible how the northern half of DTC is now depleted instead. It's like only 2-3 blocks of this neighborhood can work at any given time.
 
Fox Furs building - 14 apartments

Building is being converted by Core Investments:

14 rental apartment units (700-1,000 sq. ft).
Historic Art Deco facade is being fully restored.
Completion this November.
 
Next Stop Wonderland said:
According to https://www.facebook.com/downtownboston, 411 Washington St. (Old FYE building)
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Hate to get Old Man on you but, you mean Strawberries, right? There was some work being done on the top floor last week and a large bit of the IJ Fox facade has been covered up to protect it.

The elevator and stairs in the building is at the back with the stairs being on the southerly side of the elevator (Years of going to the cassettes on the third floor has given me a familiarity with the building). The retail will probably being on the northerly side of the building with a common entrance.
 
What? What?? What??!

Wondrous news. I would have thought that building would hold more (or larger) units but doesn't matter.

It will be kind of weird with the retail to the left and right of it; until those get filled in with more housing it will be kind of an oasis. And, those apartment tenants have three years of construction right in their faces, once Millennium Tower gets going.
 
JohnAKeith said:
What? What?? What??!

It will be kind of weird with the retail to the left and right of it; until those get filled in with more housing it will be kind of an oasis.
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As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, it seems somewhat excessive given the overall environment. I walk past 453 Washington St. all the time--with, what, at least 75-100 condo dwellers in there? Yet the overwhelming impression of that building/streetscape is still that sleazy/shady/sketchy jewelry shop/fence shop for illegally-stolen goods right at the base, adjacent to the T entrance. Don't get me wrong, 30-40 more folks living it 411 Washington will be great. But it's going to take much more for this decades-long revitalization to fully consummate. (For example, alluding to the above, the number of fence shops for illegally stolen goods in that area is still appalling--five or six in a hundred yard radius?)
 
I had hoped someone would buy this and the B&N building next door and put up a mid-rise / high-rise apt/condo building but apparently not to be.

I don't know if the hotel going in down the street is a good thing or a bad thing - it could be a block-breaker.
 
Downtown-Crossing.jpg


Jordan Marsh during the Blizzard of '78.
 
JohnAKeith said:
I had hoped someone would buy this and the B&N building next door and put up a mid-rise / high-rise apt/condo building but apparently not to be.

I don't know if the hotel going in down the street is a good thing or a bad thing - it could be a block-breaker.
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I think what will make or break the hotel project in terms of whether it adds to or detracts from all the new stuff going into DTX is if it has a good restaurant/bar on the first floor.

Temple Place has some OK bars and restaurants already, but something on that corner could draw people from DTX onto Temple.
 
I wish someone would restore the old I.J.Fox art deco building, formerly a record shop...and return the fox heads to the facade!
 
That's what I posted earlier. From the downtown crossing web page:

Development began today on 411 Washington St. (former FYE building). The upper stories are being converted into 14 apartment units ranging from 700-1,000 sq. ft. The street-level retail unit, with the famous Art Deco sculpture on the recessed doorway from when the building hosted I.J. Fox Furs, is being fully restored. Construction is set to finish this November.
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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...67784.286225281420201&type=1&relevant_count=1

I can't find too much on this building with a quick search other than this:

http://bostonartdeco.org/boston_art_deco_a_virtual_w/downtown/i_j_fox/

http://www.bostonredevelopmentautho...ublications/downtownCrossing_PresMonth(3).pdf

from this page:
http://www.bostonredevelopmentautho...nitsIndividual.asp?action=ViewInit&InitID=110
 
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One of the missing links in the renovation of Downtown Crossing and Washington Street.

Remember back in the old good times when there was a proposal to renovate the McDonald's building at the corner of Washington Street and Stuart Street / Kneeland Street?

Maybe someone can bring it back from the dead.

Boston-20130313-00465_zpsdf612cbc.jpg


Boston-20130313-00464_zps8f43175c.jpg
 
McDonald's is far from my favorite thing in the world, but it does seem to use that wrap-around corner well. What would you like to change here?
 
The proposal was to renovate the upper floors into apartments or condominiums. I don't know what they planned for the first floor. Chinese restaurant and laundromat?
 
So they should take a good looking building in decent shape that supports a (presumably) diverse group of low-key and low-rent retail and office space, evict them, gut the building and turn it into luxury condos and at best two retail spaces with rent so high no one but chains or destination restaurants can afford to be in there?
 
They didn't say anything about changing the goddamn building.

JESUS.

EDIT: So, does anyone else remember that proposal? I can't seem to find anything online. I don't think anything was formally submitted.
 
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