Fan Pier Developments | Seaport

Short yes ... but short and fat is a development choice, rarely in the hands of a designer. Even short and fat could have been done better ... pinstripes help. :)

cca
 
today drive by
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and from Black Falcon Terminal
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Boy, I sure want a piece of the Fan Pier action!

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Louis Boston inks lease at Fan Pier
Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman

Clothing retailer Louis Boston has signed a lease for a 22,000-square-foot retail space at Fan Pier.

The news was announced at a gathering of business and political leaders at the South Boston waterfront development Thursday.

Fan Pier, which is being developed by Joseph Fallon, is a $3 million development on the South Boston waterfront. Last month the Boston Business Journal reported that Fallon asked the Department of Environmental Protection for permission to build two temporary buildings that would house retail, restaurants, public restrooms and a water-transportation ticketing office. The modular buildings, if approved, will be between 22,000 square feet and 45,000 square feet. The facilities will be built in the place of two permanent buildings slated for parcels overlooking a marina. The parcels are approved for residential, hotel or office uses.

The temporary buildings, which would be built on the last parcels slated for development, could remain on Fan Pier for 10 years or more, according to a request made to the DEP. Fallon is asking for an extension on a license that allows for interim uses. The license currently expires in 2014.

Fan Pier has recently gained some traction as other developers have struggled to line up tenants and financing. Fallon recently nabbed the law firm Fish & Richardson PC to lease space in the first 500,000-square-foot office building, which is under construction now.

The entire 21-acre site is approved for eight buildings including office, research, residential, retail and hotel space.
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I wonder if they got a major discount on the lease. Louis Boston was in trouble, no? And the old MIT building on Berkeley St. can't have been cheap, assuming this isn't an additional location and they're moving there.

Because, I mean, this location is not exactly the greatest customer draw. I bet Fish & Richardson are going to be leaving the office for a lot more client meetings. Who would want to invite a prospective to that undignified hulk of a yellow box with glass warts squatting on a cold, windswept parking lot? (It's going to be a fun place to work in winter!)
 
From Newbury St. to Fan Pier?? WTF? They must be getting quite a good deal on that lease....

I still don't get this 'top-down' development that we are seeing....what is the point of luring these high end retailers to an area with limited population...retail space...and foot traffic?

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/10/louisboston_pla.html

LouisBoston, long a retail icon on Newbury Street, plans to relocate to about 20,000 square feet of space at Fan Pier in South Boston's waterfront district, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said.

In a press release, the owner of the high end clothier, Debi Greenberg, said in a statement, ?Ever since the completion of the Big Dig, I knew I wanted to be by the water.... We can?t wait to begin our next adventure with LouisBoston here in our new home on the waterfront.?

LouisBoston is expected to open at its new location in spring 2010, the release added.

In mid 2008, LouisBoston disclosed that it would move out of its historic building on Newbury Street when its lease expires in 2010. To read a Globe story about that decision, please click here. In that story, Greenberg said she was looking for a new site with the kind of edge that Newbury Street used to have.

Fan Pier is a 3 million square foot, mixed-use project situated on 21 waterfront acres overlooking Boston Harbor; the project includes three office buildings, a five-star hotel, spa, restaurants, retail, and luxury residential buildings. Fan Pier is being developed by the Fallon Co. Last month, the Fallon Co. said that the Fish & Richardson law firm had signed a lease for 124,000 square feet of space at Fan Pier. (Globe Staff)
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I still don't get this 'top-down' development that we are seeing....what is the point of luring these high end retailers to an area with limited population...retail space...and foot traffic?
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It's an "if you build it, they will come" philosophy. An established brand = a draw, theoretically. Unfortunately it doesn't factor in setting as a reason for the popularity of some stores to begin with. Translation: Fan Pier has the potential to become a luxury urban retail fail - Boston's Natick Collection.
 
Does Louis Boston have that high a profile? I think a Nordstrom or Ikea would have a better shot at attracting people to a new and untested retail location.
 
True, but Nordstrom says "this is just another suburban mall come to the city". Louis Boston says, "this is part of establishment Boston".

But that's probably reading way too much into it. I'm sure they would have taken a generic chain store if they were the first to jump at the lease.
 
There was an article in the Globe about 18 months back in which Louis Boston bitched about:
1. Newbury St is too expensive.
2. Newbury St has become the home of national chains.
3. Louis Boston helped make Newbury St and now it wants to make another cutting edge retail district.
Sounded to me like reasons 2 and 3 were smokescreens for reason 1.

Does Louis Boston have that high a profile?
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No, but they are (or see themselves as) a destination retailer. People shop there for the personal attention and custom experience.

THis is not the article I read a while back but it makes similar points.
 
With all the vacancies on Newbury these days, seems like established retailers like Louis should be able to get a break on rent.
 
Rent doesn't really work that way. It's sticky, because landlords don't want to set a precedent or get locked into a deal if there's a recovery.
 
And that may not be a bad thing. I like the idea of a village of temporary structures that can be easily refit and reconfigured to changing needs and uses. There is potential for creativity here.

Perhaps I'm too easily seduced by MIT's old Building 20 on the one hand, and PUMA City on the other.
 
The problem is...the temporary buildings won't hide what's there now, which would have potentially looked less shitty hidden behind /standing along with five other stumps.

Now we've got a stump and a shantytown.
 
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