Owners set rebuild pact in Fenway
Restaurant Row, sense of character were lost in fire
By Eric Moskowitz
Globe Staff / November 21, 2009
Nearly a year after an early morning fire destroyed the Fenway neighborhood?s Restaurant Row, the property owners reached an agreement yesterday in a meeting at City Hall for new construction they say will restore the character of the street.
The resolution, reached in a meeting organized by City Council president Michael P. Ross, ended a disagreement among the partners about what to do with the property, now a charred shell where six restaurants and a dry cleaner once provided a gathering place and sense of community, apart from the lights and crowds of Fenway Park.
Students recently brightened the remaining facades with a row of murals, and neighbors held a block party in late September to keep spirits high, but that had not stilled the frustration and confusion among residents over the lack of progress. Displaced business tenants have been saying they were eager to hear from their landlords.
News of yesterday?s agreement gladdened Jim Hoben, owner of the popular El Pel?n Taqueria. ?I can?t believe it! That?s awesome,?? he said.
Hoben has tried unsuccessfully to open a new restaurant elsewhere while maintaining hope of serving his signature fish tacos in the Fenway again. ?We?re ready to go, absolutely,?? he said. ?Just waiting on these guys.??
A few weeks after the January fire, more than 100 residents crowded a neighborhood meeting to call for the row of connected storefronts on Peterborough Street to be rebuilt quickly, hoping to avoid prolonged blight - and hoping the property owners would not replace it with a landscape-altering high-rise.
Monty Gold, spokesman for the ownership group 84-100 Peterborough Realty Trust, told the Globe in March that he shared the community?s interest in building structures similar to the originals but had to sort out insurance issues before committing to that goal. In September, Gold attended the neighborhood party, organized by the Fenway Community Development Corporation, but declined to comment at that time on future plans.
Gold?s lawyer, Edward C. Cooley, said private conflicts among trust partners proved a more substantial hurdle to a development plan than insurance. He credited Ross with shepherding the partners and their lawyers into a room and presiding over yesterday?s five-hour meeting, plying them with coffee and sandwiches and calming tempers that flared. They left with a confidential agreement to draw up plans for a project that will maintain the spirit of the old row, Cooley said.
?I will be very candid with you: I went into the meeting figuring it would be 45 minutes to an hour, and that nothing of substance would be accomplished,?? Cooley said.
Ross, who represents the neighborhood, said he came away from the September block party determined to get the partners into a room. ?I mean guys, come on. We?re having a celebration for a mural? We should be having ribbon cuttings for these buildings to be opened,?? Ross said. ?I think when you appeal to people on that level, they step up, and here they did.??
Lori Frankian, a Fenway CDC board member and 20-year resident, organized the community party. She called yesterday?s agreement ?amazing news . . . I?m just so pleased and proud and elated.??
Cooley said it is too early to provide details about the project and would not say whether it could contain new elements such as residential units, or when plans would be submitted to the city. But the ?stumbling block?? is lifted, he said.
The fire displaced El Pel?n, Thornton?s Fenway Grille, Greek Isles Restaurant, Rod-Dee Thai Cuisine, Umi Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar, Sorento?s Italian Gourmet, and Bon Cleaners.
The tenants were covered by insurance except for the cleaner and Greek Isles, whose owners were preparing to sell when the fire hit, said Evelyn Friedman, Mayor Thomas M. Menino?s cabinet chief for housing and director of the Department of Neighborhood Development. The city helped Bon relocate to a temporary home and will offer loans or technical assistance to the other businesses as the development materializes, she said.
?We?re really looking forward to seeing a real building there,?? Friedman said.
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