Downtown Crossing/Financial District | Discussion

Jahvon09 said:
May I ask the mods a question, please?

Does anyone know why part of this thread has become The Millenium Tower that's being built on part of the land that was once occupied by the old Filene's store?

Isn't this kind of confusing for some of the members here who might be looking for the actual thread on the tower? Shouldn't the replies on the tower be n merged with the one that is mainly about the tower?

Just thought that I'd ask. Just saying. :confused:
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Posts from the Millennium Tower thread (that were not about Millennium Tower) were moved to this thread. That's why you see Millennium Tower in some of the subject lines in this thread, especially on the last few pages.

Overall though, there really are not many pictures of MT in this thread. This thread's purpose is to document other DTX happenings (developments, discussions, etc) as well as photographing the atmosphere of DTX.
 
I just tried to clean up some of the thread titles. Hopefully that will clear some of the confusion.
 
Well this should get JohnAKeith excited...

... Walking down Tremont St. today I spied a large sign in one of the vacant storefronts at 151 Tremont St. proclaiming that a substantial renovation/modernization of the 151 Tremont St. retail arcade is imminent.

Took a picture but the glare was horrific so no point in posting. Maybe some enterprising lad can get a good picture of the rendering--it's quite large--and post here.

The rendering said "2015," so they'd really have to hustle... the rendering showed the hideously dated purple awning totally torn down, and a modern-looking awning in its place, a la the recently renovated awnings at One Devonshire and Hyatt/LCC.

Of course, the rendering also showed some very appealing-looking future retailers occupying it. Right now, 151 Tremont's retail looks mainly vacant. The bridal shop closed, the tacky costume shop closed. The suite JohnAKeith used to occupy [if I'm thinking of the correct one] remains vacant. So, hopefully it's relatively easy to clear out the remaining unappealing tenants and inject some truly nice/competitive offerings to complement the new facade, once it goes up.

"You won't have Tremont on The Common left to kick around anymore..." (and they probably started building it at the same time Tricky Dick famously 'retired' from politics in '64)
 
Time to remove a lane of Tremont St and make the sidewalk wider.
 
That is good news. It would be nice if they could/would redo the entire facade, but the retail level is probably the most important element.
 
It's always shocked me that the retail around the Common/Garden isn't better. You'd think it would be prime real estate. It's slowly changing though. I guess proximity to the Combat Zone and the general ebb of DTX in favor of the Back Bay as THE shopping destination hasn't helped over the last few decades.
 
underground said:
It's always shocked me that the retail around the Common/Garden isn't better. You'd think it would be prime real estate. It's slowly changing though. I guess proximity to the Combat Zone and the general ebb of DTX in favor of the Back Bay as THE shopping destination hasn't helped over the last few decades.
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I'm not as surprised. I'm sure the Combat Zone was hurting for a long time, and the ebb of commerce over to Back Bay is also very real, and very entrenched. But the layout on Tremont has real problems for street front retail. Contrast it with Newbury Street. Over there, you've got wide sidewalks, so if you're strolling along window-shopping, you're not as likely to feel pressured to speed up, like on that skinny sidewalk in front of 151 Tremont. Also, on Newbury, plenty of people window-shop both sides at the same time. With only two lanes of slow-ish traffic (sometimes really slow traffic), jaywalking over to pop into a shop one sees on the other side is fairly easy. People do it all the time.

On that stretch of Tremont, most people on the far side of the street are there because they want to be in the Common. Almost by definition half the pedestrians are looking the other way, away from the retail. If they do happen to be over on the Common side of the street, and then want/need something, or just by chance see a retail window that grabs their fancy, they have to cross a stretch of road that drivers treat like the Indy Speedway [self-edited to add: because several blocks of that street are designed for exactly that].

So I would assume that even with all the upscale development in DTX and the ongoing long slow fade of the Combat Zone (pretty vestigial already at this point), it might never reach the potential of Newbury Street for retail. Calming the street and widening the sidewalk would obviously help a lot. With wider sidewalks and less noisy traffic noise, I bet the views would make the location really good for restaurants with some outdoor seating and wide-opening front windows. With the current layout of street and sidewalk, though, I think the retail will only improve so far despite all the upscale folks moving into the area.
 
^ Yeah. Also remember that those stretches of Tremont and Boylston are essentially campuses for Emerson and Suffolk. There need to be a fair number of poor student type establishments... especially eateries.

I don't think the Public Garden has particularly low scale environs though. The only real retail frontage that the Garden has is Boylston, and there are lots of boutiques lining the Four Seasons. Charles Street is the dividing line there between chic and not.
 
That's interesting news. I have only been by once in about six months so had missed this. I don't know if Ford Realty still holds the lease; I guess not if it's empty. He was getting no activity in there so I think giving up the lease would be a good idea. It was expensive - and no doubt they'll try for more once it's renovated?

I wish the CVS that was in that arcade had stayed; it certainly gave some activity to that block. I think there wasn't enough traffic, though, and they pulled out, which must be unusual for them.

Forget losing a lane of auto traffic for walking; I want a BRT down there. The perfect location.
 
I always thought it would be worthwhile to try and give the non-Common side of Tremont an upgrade. Either take a lane From Tremont or take that section of sidewalk on the road side of the fence, shift that right of way to the other side, widen the sidewalk, add some trees, etc, make it feel like the Common kind of spills over and across the road.
 
^^
Agreed, as one option.

I'd love to get a bunch of traffic / bicycle / pedestrian planners together and hash out some ideas for Tremont starting all the way back at Court St and going all the way down to where it bears off and the straightaway becomes Shawmut. The whole thing is a raceway. I have to admit my bias as mainly a pedestrian downtown, and I do understand some folks need to drive, so I don't know how far this could get pushed without creating gridlock. Most evenings, though, when I cross Tremont on the way to Park Street station, there's a lot of traffic that is just hauling ass along once the light is green. When gridlock happens, it's because of an accident that would have caused gridlock with any layout.

Along with the dangerous speeds for anyone crossing the road, there are long stretches with no parked cars offering protection to pedestrians, and with really low curb profiles, so even the sidewalks are hazardous. With as fast as people drive there and as much lane-jockeying goes on, I'm surprised I haven't heard of incidents of cars jumping the curb and taking out pedestrians. Maybe everyone else feels as unsafe along the Common stretch of Tremont as I do, that they all stay back of those big planters. If that's the case, then that's more argument for what you're suggesting. Up farther between Court and Park, there aren't any such planters and there are tons of pedestrians, cars are jus zooming along inches away from them. I don't know how the Green Line tunnel underneath there factors into all this, maybe its roof is solid enough to handle whatever layout is above it (apparently the case between Court and Park). But there's a lot of width to work with on many sections of Tremont, and it's as good an example as any of the "cars first, everyone else pound sand" mode of street layout.
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

Now if only we can get the owners of the different lots at the corners of Stuart and Tremont streets to sell, we'll see some real change.
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

More locally to this project, has there been any movement on the Bromfield St. tower that was approved years ago but never built?

That would just add to the amount of people living on this block.
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

Now if only we can get the owners of the different lots at the corners of Stuart and Tremont streets to sell, we'll see some real change.
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They want a pile of money and don't care since those businesses rake in cash. Put it this way the owners of the Tam are sitting on a four story building in the middle of the city and the top three floors are abandoned.

Also I think I prefer the small human scale buildings there. Finally, I would bet on the people living in the new Jacob Wirth tower throwing a nutty if/when someone does propose a tower there since it would block their precious views and practically abut their building.

A better spot would be the corner of Washington and Stuart where those 1 and 2 floor Chinese places are before the Richardson commercial building.
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

Mongo said:
More locally to this project, has there been any movement on the Bromfield St. tower that was approved years ago but never built?

That would just add to the amount of people living on this block.
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But Millenium’s plans aren’t enough to convince Midwood Management to begin construction on One Bromfield. Usdan reportedly told the Herald he wanted to “see foundations poured” before his company would begin its project
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http://patch.com/massachusetts/charlestown/one-bromfield-project-still-on-hold
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

Well, when's the best time for these guys (One Bromfield) to announce construction - and as condos or apartments? Do you announce now, and get people looking at Millennium but perhaps priced out or wait because everyone's buying at Millennium and you hope you can get higher prices once that's opened up?
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

"Never" works for me.
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

JohnAKeith said:
Well, when's the best time for these guys (One Bromfield) to announce construction - and as condos or apartments? Do you announce now, and get people looking at Millennium but perhaps priced out or wait because everyone's buying at Millennium and you hope you can get higher prices once that's opened up?
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I wonder if the market demand demonstrated for the two Millennium projects on Washington would prompt the One Bromfield developer to tack on another 10-12 floors on top of the originally proposed 28 floors. Somehow living in a 40th floor penthouse seems a lot sexier than living on the 28th floor, especially when you have your richer neighbors gazing down on you from on high across the street from the comfort of their 60th floor environs.
 
Moved From: Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

617 said:
Just messing around...truly shocked that it's 70% sold. Even more shocked that supposedly greater Boston itself has enough people with money willing to spend so much in a questionable area...especially after reading so many articles about people abroad buying places in Boston so that their kids can go to college here someday etc.
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617 -- perhaps you should update your area code

Questionable area

Don't have enough money

have you been living under a large rock or is it the snow cover

Since the Millenium broke ground the Four Seasons was announced, financed and construction began

This is some of the hottest real estate in the US and money is not an object

Whether the boom will continue if the economy tanks again in the next 2 years?
 
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