Fenway Center (One Kenmore) | Turnpike Parcel 7, Beacon Street | Fenway

[ablarc]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

I realize Boston can never get anything visionary off the ground (imagine CCTV over the Pike), but why always so cheap, so small, so awful?

I am not so sure if something that visionary would work with such close proximity to Fenway Park.

Looks like type001 dropped by to show you why, Randy.

 

[tmac9wr]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

I don't think this stuff looks that terrible...the glass looks sleek and there's no pre-cast. The low-rises are boring, but I think the tower looks really cool.

 

[Patriots_1228]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

cool buildings, which probably means they will never get built

 

[ablarc]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

I don't think this stuff looks that terrible...the glass looks sleek and there's no pre-cast. The low-rises are boring, but I think the tower looks really cool.

Easy to satisfy. ^

cool buildings, which probably means they will never get built

Ditto, but pessimistic. ^



(More answers to Randy's question. ^)

 

[type001]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

I think your critisms of members' responses are uncalled for. We are speaking about the Fenway location specifically. That CCTV rendering looks cool, but the extravagent design really serves little function. But moreso, why would you fight a battle to choose a location that is directly next to America's oldest ballpark? Nobody here has said they wouldn't want it in the city. In fact, I would love it. There's just no point in crying that something like that does not get proposed near Fenway.

 

[statler]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

Developer Remains Unruffled During Decade-Long Delay
By Thomas Grillo
Reporter

John Rosenthal, president of Meredith Management Corp., has proposed a $450 million project to be built over the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston?s Kenmore Square.

If patience is a virtue, then John Rosenthal is blessed. Ten years after he introduced plans to build a mini-city along and above the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park and the Yawkey MBTA Commuter Rail Station, the $450 million project recently was filed with the Boston Redevelopment Authority. If approved, One Kenmore will include four towers, 338,000 square feet of office space, 101,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and 282 apartments.

In 1991, Rosenthal purchased a parking garage on Lansdowne Street and proposed an entertainment complex at the site, but the plan was shelved when General Cinema withdrew its support. Later, when the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority offered several nearby parcels above the turnpike for development, the idea for One Kenmore was born.

Rosenthal?s company, Meredith Management Corp., has developed, owned and managed more than 3,000 apartments, 6,000 condominiums and 5 million square feet of commercial space. Along with the late Michael Kennedy, Robert and Ethel Kennedy?s son, he founded Stop Handgun Violence. He also launched Friends of Boston?s Homeless.

Rosenthal recently spoke to Banker & Tradesman about his work.

Q: After a decade of planning, you recently filed the One Kenmore proposal with the city of Boston. What took so long?

A: This is a very dynamic site with large and active abutters, including the Red Sox, Boston University, Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association, Fenway Civic Association and Fenway Community Development Corp., many of whom said they have been victimized by other development and uses in the area. BU and the Sox don?t necessarily share the same interests. They have very different constituents. The neighborhood groups said they have been put upon by institutions, nightclubs and the Longwood Medical Area. Later, a panel was created to create a civic vision for turnpike air rights. That document recommended zoning changes that took time to implement. Then the Red Sox had to decide whether to build a new stadium elsewhere or stay put. Then, and only then, could the turnpike issue an RFP for the parcels.

Q: It sounds as if there were lots of moving parts and you were on the sidelines until they were worked out.

A: Yes, lots of things needed to get settled before anyone could pay attention to what I wanted to do there.

Q: While the lengthy process was unfolding, did you ever say, ?Forget it, I have better things to do??

A: No. I focused on other things. We had developed 3,000 apartments and sold 1,200 in 2000 and that was a large transaction. I managed to balance my for-profit world with large, successful nonprofits, including Friends of Boston?s Homeless, and developed lots of housing and programs over the last decade for the homeless. I?ve helped make Massachusetts the leader in gun-violence prevention during that time. All of this put any business venture in perspective for me. How could I feel sorry for myself if I was proposing a million square feet of development in a dynamic neighborhood with lots of stakeholders and I was being delayed? Compare that to 45 percent of the homeless who work regular jobs and can?t afford housing. Or meeting parents of dead children every month from preventable gun violence. It became easy to be patient over a business deal. I knew the time would come because there are too many public benefits associated with this development, not the least of which is a full-time, renovated Yawkey Station.

Q: The largest residential project you?ve done is a 400-unit apartment complex in Fall River. Can you handle a mega deal like One Kenmore?

A: We are proposing 282 units and we?ve managed and leased a 400,000-square-foot, 25-story tower in Springfield. We know how to manage, maintain and lease. And we?ve managed River Walk, a 1.3 million-square-foot mixed-use industrial project in Lawrence. We have all the systems and experience in place to manage and lease a project of this magnitude. Clearly, we have not built, nor have many people built, over the turnpike. [New York-based Bovis Lend Lease] is our builder and they have built larger projects than this. By the time we get our approvals, we will have a development partner who will not only have the experience, but the financial backing to put up the majority of equity required and all the completion guarantees necessary for this deal. We can?t do it alone. Neither can the developers of Columbus Center.

NLA
Rosenthal spoke at one of my community development classes at BU. Interesting guy. He is very self assured, but he has done enough in his life to back it up.

 

[Batterymarch]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

what has he done?

 

[statler]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

We had developed 3,000 apartments and sold 1,200 in 2000 and that was a large transaction. I managed to balance my for-profit world with large, successful nonprofits, including Friends of Boston?s Homeless, and developed lots of housing and programs over the last decade for the homeless. I?ve helped make Massachusetts the leader in gun-violence prevention during that time.

He has also been arrested for leading an anti-nuke demonstration in the 70's.
He may not be Donald Trump, but he has done a lot more with his life than I've done with mine.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

The originally proposed movie theatre would have been a Sundance-General Cinema joint project, before that partnership fell apart. Sundance has recently gotten back into the movie theatre business. Would Rosenthal consider including a movie theatre once again?

 

[Jasonik]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

It doesn't seem viable for a movie theater considering the proximity of the Landmark Center.

 

[ckb]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

Was the movie theater proposal made before or after the Fenway multiplex (in the Landmark Building) was proposed/completed?

(And before/after the Boston Common multiplex was proposed/completed?)

 

[palindrome]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

I don't understand how any of you could give a fair judgment of this project from a 300x300 rendering that is at least 100 yards away.

 

[ablarc]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

It doesn't seem viable for a movie theater considering the proximity of the Landmark Center.

Theater districts are unviable?

 

[statler]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

Theater districts are unviable?

I think theater districts became unviable when theater houses started to become multiplexs with multiple screen like the Fenway 13.

That said, I would imagine that a Sundance theater would specialize in movies that would not make it into places like the Fenway 13 (Ron, correct me if I'm wrong on that)

Plus, there is no law (yet) that would preclude them from including a live theater venue...except maybe the law of supply and demand.

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

Sundance specializes in art films -- their bookings would be wholly disjoint from Regal Fenway's.

As for live theatre, one of the Landsdowne St. clubs (Mama Kin) was turned into a live theatre stage for a year or two. Apparently this was not successful.

 

[nico]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

^C'mon. That's a bullshit comparison, and you know it.

 

[palindrome]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

Maybe a better comparison is the dedham community theater vs. the 12 screen showcase theater just down the road?

 

[windowgain]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

The project notification form has been published on The Meredith Management website:
http://www.meredithmanagement.com/1kenmore.php

The following are available for download from that page:

Project Notification Form
Environmental Notification Form
Transportation Study
Transportation Study - Appendix

 

[Jasonik]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

Sundance specializes in art films -- their bookings would be wholly disjoint from Regal Fenway's.

An art-house would be welcome obviously. It's a hike for the art school kids to get to Kendall, Brattle, and Coolidge.

The Coolidge appears to be the most closely affiliated with Sundance at present.

...12 mom-and-pop theaters across the country will get the 2007 Sundance Institute Art House Project Shorts Program, a seven-movie sampler of last year's entries playing at the Coolidge.
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/01/18/oh_the_places_extreme_skiers_go/

 

[unterbau]

Re: One Kenmore (Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

Keep in mind, that area used to be able to support an arthouse theater in the past: The Nickelodeon, so there's no reason why it couldn't work here - especially in a much better location than previously.