For developer, 3d time may be charm
Kenmore plan would add housing, parking near Pike
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | January 10, 2007
Developer John Rosenthal yesterday unveiled his latest plan to remake the Kenmore Square neighborhood near Fenway Park, a 1.3-million-square-foot project that would put two residential towers along the Massachusetts Turnpike.
If completed, Rosenthal's One Kenmore would add 668 housing units to the area and cover more than 500 feet of the open Turnpike corridor . It would create pedestrian access between Beacon Street and Fenway Park, and would improve access to the MBTA commuter rail's Yawkey Station.
Rosenthal yesterday submitted the only bid to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to build on land, with air rights, known as Parcel 7, just west of Brookline Avenue. His plans include 20- and 17-floor towers, 57,000 square feet of restaurants and retail space, and, if fully built , five buildings that would include parking for more than 1,200 vehicles.
The platform at Yawkey Station would be extended, and the station would be more easily reached from both Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue. Plans also call for a vehicle drop-off area .
Rosenthal had submitted two earlier plans for the area, and yesterday he expressed relief there was no competition for the Turnpike award on his third attempt. "It's been 10 years," Rosenthal said. "I certainly expected to have it built by now."
One major difference between Rosenthal's current plan and previous ones involves the position of the Boston Red Sox, the 800-pound gorilla in the neighborhood. The Red Sox had quietly opposed Rosenthal's original idea, unveiled in 2002 for a location on the other side of Brookline Avenue, fearing it would put too large a development close to Fenway Park.
Rosenthal's initial proposal also called for a 1.3-million-square-foot project; he scaled that one back after hearing objections, but the Turnpike and city officials still heard concerns that the project would crowd Kenmore Square and Fenway Park.
Now, however, the Red Sox are expected to be minority investment partners with Rosenthal on the project. "The Red Sox were a very worthy opponent and are a wonderful ally," Rosenthal quipped.
"This represents a very exciting time in the revitalization of the Longwood-Fenway-Kenmore area," Janet Marie Smith, senior vice president for planning and development for the Red Sox, said in a statement.
The project will have to go through a City Hall review , and Mayor Thomas M. Menino was positive yesterday. "It's an exciting mix of uses, and state-of-the-art design for the Yawkey Way transit station will greatly enhance the Kenmore-Fenway area," he said.
A Turnpike spokesman said the authority does not have a timetable for deciding on Parcel 7.
Rosenthal is continuing to use Carlos Zapata of Carlos Zapata Studio of New York, formerly of Wood+Zapata in Boston, as his architect, but a firm that has done work for the Red Sox, D'Agostino Izzo Quirk Architects of Somerville, is also now participating.
The new location is expected to improve Rosenthal's chances of getting the project built. Although many community members supported Rosenthal's proposals from the start, they also liked the idea of moving the project farther from the heart of Kenmore Square.
Rosenthal is president of Meredith Management Corp., a residential development company founded in 1951 by his father. It manages 250,000 square feet of commercial property and more than 1,000 apartments and cooperative units.
One Kenmore would be his biggest project .
His current plan would offer the residential units as apartments, because that market is stronger than the one for condominiums. A total of 393 of the units would be in the two towers, with some 160 in seven-story buildings along the south side of Beacon Street.
The rest of the apartments -- 115 or so -- would be in seven-story buildings along Brookline Avenue that would fit in architecturally with the neighborhood and would wrap around a 662-car public parking garage to be constructed over the Turnpike . Left unanswered in Rosenthal's proposal is who would build and own that garage, designed for use by visitors to Fenway Park and the congested Longwood Medical Area nearby.
The Boston Transportation Department is studying parking needs in the area.
One Kenmore, meanwhile, would have 602 parking spaces in a separate garage for its residents.
Rosenthal's original proposal on the other side of Brookline Avenue would have replaced the aging Lansdowne Street parking garage, across from Fenway's Green Monster. He bought the garage for $2.4 million in 1992.
Under his current agreement with the Red Sox, the team's owners would buy the 340-space garage, built in 1910, and redevelop the property with a use and scale that the team owners consider compatible with Fenway Park.
Rosenthal retains the rights he won in 2002 to develop three other Turnpike air rights parcels, extending east toward downtown from Brookline Avenue.
Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at
tpalmer@globe.com.
