Developer: Condos next for Fan Pier
By Brendan Lynch
Thursday, June 23, 2011
As Fan Pier developers broke ground yesterday on the largest private-sector project in the United States so far this year and celebrated the biggest commercial lease in Hub history with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, they pledged to soon add residential buildings to the long-stalled South Boston site.
“Adding 1,800 employees means we’ll be adding residential. It’s not rocket science,” said developer Joseph Fallon. “You bring people to the waterfront, you add more people, there’s going to be more demand for that use.”
Fallon said his company would be selecting an architect at the end of the year to begin work on the 200-condominium, 225,000-square-foot residential development.
The condo building will be on the water, directly behind the two buildings that will house the Vertex headquarters. A Fallon spokesperson said parcels on Northern Avenue would also be developed as a hotel and more housing.
Fallon and Vertex threw a lavish groundbreaking party on Fan Pier yesterday with about 25 ceremonial shovels, multiple tents, ice sculptures of the Vertex and Fan Pier logos, and a lunch reception.
As the shoveling began, giant renderings of the 1.1 million-square-foot project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013, unfurled from the top of the tent, smoke billowed from the stage and confetti blasted out of cannons.
Boston Redevelopment Authority director Peter Meade said he expects the residential development to get under way next year while Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he expects it “shortly.”
“This is the first part of it,” Menino said. “This is a great piece for the city of Boston and it sends a strong message for this whole South Boston Waterfront and the Innovation District.”
Link