Fort Point Infill and Small Developments

I don't think the Seaport district was actually planned by urban planners and designers -- more like lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats. :?[/quote]
 
In some ways I feel the city has dodged a bullet with this area not being developed. It was only going to be "trendy" and full of "luxury condos" which would be great for, what?, 1% of the population? This is a perfect place to build affordable apartments to attract middle class people to the city.

Or it is a perfect place to have parking lots, being right off the highway, 2 subway lines, commuter rail and Amtrak, and Logan Airport. I'm actually surprised they didn't build a few garages. Seriously.
 
Beacon Capital Partners is putting up for sale the development rights to its much touted Channel Center project, three years after the firm rolled out a sweeping vision for the area?s transformation.
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Could they sell it to Goldman, the guy doing everything right with those Fort Point/Boston Wharf developments?
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
In some ways I feel the city has dodged a bullet with this area not being developed. It was only going to be "trendy" and full of "luxury condos" which would be great for, what?, 1% of the population? This is a perfect place to build affordable apartments to attract middle class people to the city.
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Well, put that in the next five-year plan, tovarishch.

justin
 
justin said:
vanshnookenraggen said:
In some ways I feel the city has dodged a bullet with this area not being developed. It was only going to be "trendy" and full of "luxury condos" which would be great for, what?, 1% of the population? This is a perfect place to build affordable apartments to attract middle class people to the city.
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Well, put that in the next five-year plan, tovarishch.

justin
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Tovarishch (Russian: Товарищ) can refer to:

* Comrade, a Russian word meaning friend, colleague, or ally. In English language, the word "comrade" often indicates an ironic reference to Soviet communists or communists in general.
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hahahaha couldn't have put it better.... youre the man justin
 
Beacon Capital Partners is a very savy company. They are selling the Hancock complex as well. Hopefully they are liquifying cash for their proposal for the 1000 footer downtown or some other big project in Boston that needs financing.
 
Work is under way at the Boston Wharf sign.

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?The market is softening,? said Vivien Li, head of the Boston Harbor Association. ?It will take a number of years before we see this area right along the (Fort Point) Channel really take off in a big way.?
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Cassandra makes a prediction.

She's in a position to know, since she's part of the cause.

When will Boston shuck this bad-news broad?
 
The Globe said:
Getting to the point of the Channel

Debate on guidelines for new landmark district is put on the fast track

By Amy Beth Swanson, Globe Correspondent | April 8, 2007

The fate of the Fort Point Channel district, the waterfront neighborhood that's long been home to a community of artists, has undergone passionate consideration for several years.

Now the committee mulling new construction guidelines for Fort Point wants to speed up the process a bit, and beginning tomorrow, plans to hold meetings every three weeks at the Boston Convention Center.

The Fort Point Channel Study Committee appointed by the mayor last fall is in charge of drawing the guidelines for a new, 55-acre landmark district that currently includes 95 buildings.

Not that all of the Fort Point players are exactly embracing the idea. At its most recent meeting, March 21, Jim Travers, real estate adviser for the U S Postal Service, expressed displeasure that Postal Service land between a stretch of the new Fort Point Park and Melcher Street is currently included in the district. The Postal Service slice, he said, had been nothing more than "railroad yards and a kerosene plant for a long time." Likewise, representatives of The Gillette Co. said they are unhappy that a half-acre vacant lot the company owns near the channel also falls within the proposed district.

When boundaries for the district are approved, buildings and land inside it will be subject to additional review by the Boston Landmarks Commission before changes can occur.

The study committee is hashing out details on everything from building heights to the type of ironwork that can be used on window grills within the district. According to current zoning regulations for much of the area south of Summer Street, building owners may not add more than two stories to existing structures and new buildings cannot be built taller than 180 feet. Preservationists say the current uniformity of building height is a defining characteristic of this area, which contains more 19th and 20th century warehouses than any other part of Boston, and should be maintained.

But John Matteson of Archon Group L.P., which owns 14 buildings in the area, said at the meeting that developers can offer more affordable units when they have fewer restrictions. He said Chicago is less expensive than Boston because buildings can be higher. Matteson also said that permitting buildings to be up to 180 feet tall "allows for unique architecture to bookend the district."

Along with height specifications, the draft of design guidelines before the study committee would also set standards on building setbacks, what materials can be used on cornices, and whether balconies will be permitted. Young Park, CEO of Berkeley Investments and the only developer on the committee, said the guidelines do not reflect the opportunity for "contemporary expression" and should be amended to do so. "We're not re-creating Beacon Hill here," he said.

Three alternatives to the original draft are on the committee's table, and the document will be further refined during this month's meetings.

Study committee member Steve Hollinger, a Fort Point resident who was spokesman for the 2001 petition that pushed for making the area a landmark district, expressed concern that buildings at the district's edges might be at greater risk of demolition.

As currently drawn, the district is a small one: Its 95 buildings pale before the 3,000 included in the South End district. Still, largely because of its status as a haven for artists, its fate has for years inspired passion far beyond its immediate confines.

The study committee meetings, which are open to the public, are expected to continue through July before a plan is finalized and a recommendation made. The document then goes before the Landmarks Commission at a public hearing, and on to the mayor and the City Council for approval.

? Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
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And because I feel like sharing, here's a shot of the building known as "344 Washington" in The Departed
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The Globe said:
A tale of two streets
Rival developers of parallel Fort Point boulevards are vying to create the neighborhood's sexier strip

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | April 13, 2007

Congress Street or Summer Street -- which will be the coolest?

Two development teams are competing to create the new "main street" in a reinvigorated neighborhood of old wharf buildings across the Fort Point Channel from downtown Boston.

"Summer Street is the spine," insisted Tony Goldman, who has done stylish urban redevelopment before, in New York's Soho and Miami's South Beach, and now has a portfolio of 11 brick buildings, clusteredaround Summer, that he's intending to develop.

A block to the north is Congress, the center of a chunk of buildings owned by Berkeley Investments Inc.

"Congress is going to be where a lot of restaurants and stores are -- the heart of the whole district, where people want to hang out," said Young K. Park, Berkeley's president. "Summer is much too wide, much too trafficked," he said.

Maybe so, but today it's hard to tell the two streets apart.

Both are lined with aging, underused red- and yellow-brick buildings, built starting in the mid-1800s on marshland that was the first area of the South Boston Waterfront to be filled in. Both streets cross the Fort Point Channel on bridges from the city, and both carry a lot of traffic.

The developers' visions for the future are also similar. Both are turning warehouse buildings into luxury condos. Both want 24/7 street life, with busy sidewalks and active storefronts. They plan to have fine restaurants, lunch places, and coffee shops, interspersed with laundries, banks, and copy shops, and a good dose of galleries, bars, and nightclubs sprinkled throughout.

"If we get the street where it needs to be, like a garden it grows in a very healthy way," said Goldman.

Also, both Goldman and Park want their respective streets to retain their historic flavor, bring new residents to the area, and draw conventioneers, the lunch crowd, and night-lifers from other Boston neighborhoods. Both vow to favor local entrepreneurs over chains.

Park has begun construction on the $55 million first phase of a projected six-year redevelopment of his dozen buildings and development sites. At five stories, it is 248-352 Congress St. and includes a new building on an adjacent lot. It is called "FP3," will house 97 condos, and will have three modern glass floors above. The name refers to its Fort Point Channel location, and to the three new floors .

Goldman and partner Archon Group LP, meanwhile, will soon begin converting a pair of yellow-brick warehouses at 316-322 Summer St. into 88 luxury condos. He expects to finish work in the neighborhood in about five years.

With so many similarities between the redevelopment efforts, each developer is searching for elements to distinguish his street.

Goldman, for example, hopes to create the same hip urban feeling that he manufactured in Soho and South Beach, in part by deploying colorful night lighting to set off his properties . He also plans to have storefront awnings for the shops and galleries along Summer and adjacent streets, such as Melcher.

He may also use backlighting to set off the signature 30-inch medallions of the former Boston Wharf Co., which owned many of these handsome buildings. Renderings show how Goldman would crown a second-story bridge between buildings over Melcher Street with lights.

The Goldman team even spent $200,000 to renovate a huge "Boston Wharf Co. Industrial Real Estate" sign that sits atop a building near the channel, and flipped the switch on a stormy night last October, with VIPs huddled against a drenching rain on the roof.

"It's going to 'brand' the district," Goldman pledged.

" 'Boston Wharf district' is not how most people label the area," responds Park, who prefers the "Fort Point" name.

Park was first to nail down an attraction. In December, big-name chef Barbara Lynch, owner of No. 9 Park, said she would lease almost 15,000 square feet of space in two of the Berkeley-owned warehouses for a "three-concept" restaurant. It will have "the Cadillac of kitchens," she said. Joanne Chang's Flour cafe has already opened on Farnsworth, which runs off Congress.

Soon after, Goldman almost nailed a similarly big name for his street. Nightlife impresario Greenberg said he would open a large restaurant at Summer and A streets, but that deal has since fallen through. More recently, Goldman signed up Achilles, a boutique clothier, with a lounge or cafe and nonprofit gallery space, for 281 Summer, a company spokesman said.

Goldman said yesterday he will also have LaMontagne Gallery at 51 Melcher St. And Garrett Harker, who cofounded No. 9 Park and now runs the popular Eastern Standard in Kenmore Square, is looking at space along Summer Street too.

Park said he is happy to hear about progress from the competition over on Summer Street. "We need both Congress and Summer to flourish," he said. "One of the key urban design priorities should be how to connect the two streets."

One major difference between the two streets is width. At 76 feet, Summer is 16 feet wider; the narrower Congress has a more human scale to it. Congress's buildings are five to six stories tall, compared with Summer Street's eight or so. Moreover, Summer Street buildings have an even taller feel, because the street was elevated when built so trains could pass underneath.

"Summer is somewhat more of a major thoroughfare," said Robert N. Kenney, who spent 34 years presiding over Boston Wharf's holdings before the firm sold off its buildings and went out of business. "In our minds, Summer did not have the charm of Congress Street."

Goldman acknowledged he has to "create a warmth and human quality to a vehicular raceway" that is Summer Street. "The neighborhood has to have points of discovery," he said.

Meantime, the commercial real estate market is so hot that both developers have already sold some of their buildings. Park has sold five of his original 17 buildings or lots. Goldman, who also owned 17 properties, has sold three buildings, including the one with the Boston Wharf Co. sign on it, and has three more on the market.

Jim Apteker, chief executive of Longwood Events, has leased space in Channel Center, close to Summer Street, to hold weddings and private parties. He thinks its proximity to the new convention center could make it a tourist magnet.

But overall, the father of a 17-month-old girl declares that "Congress Street is the hands-down winner. Its proximity to the Children's Museum makes Congress Street the hippest place in town."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
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Just to reiterate the obvious, Summer Street feels like a highway that incidentally happens to have an 8-story streetwall lining its sides. The sidewalks aren't particularly wide and there's zero trees -- considering all the "warm" red and yellow brick around, it's a rather "cold" street.

So the obvious is to widen the sidewalks - make outdoor cafes viable - and get a green canopy going on. If this kind of improvement can be implemented on the highly-trafficked Comm Ave. then I don't see any reasons why it couldn't here. Plus, with one developer having such a large stake in seeing this street succeed, it shouldn't be that hard to get him to pay for at least some of the upgrades.
 
Christ, the traffic engineers who put the bike lanes between the traffic and the parking have NEVER ridden a bike in their lives!
 
I like it.

Moving the convention center to close that gap on summer street is a great idea.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Christ, the traffic engineers who put the bike lanes between the traffic and the parking have NEVER ridden a bike in their lives!
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I agree!!!!

Theres nothing worse than wondering when a door will open directly inf ront of you when biking down a street.


The proper allignment should be


sidewalk | bike lane | small sidewalk for meters | parked cars | road
 
^ Amen. Cambridge Street from the Charles to Inman Square has one of those set ups, but with all the side streets with only stop signs funneling onto it and parking spots that apparently have a high turnover rate, it makes it one of my least favorite roads to ride.

TC said:
I like it.

Moving the convention center to close that gap on summer street is a great idea.
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Hahaha nice catch.
 
Ceremony marks ground-breaking of new waterfront eatery
Boston Business Journal - 1:43 PM EDT Friday, April 20, 2007

Berkeley Investments Inc., local restaurateur Barbara Lynch and Mayor Thomas M. Menino broke ground Friday at Fort Point Channel for a planned mixed-use venture.

FP3 is the lastest project to begin construction along Boston's burgeoning South Boston waterfront. The project, located at 346-354 Congress St., will include nearly 15,000 square-feet of commercial restaurant space, and 3,000 square feet of retail space, all of which is to be utilized by Lynch for a new fine dining restaurant, a martini bar, and a casual eatery/market. The project also includes 97 new residences.

The project was approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority last year; it will combine two existing wharf-warehouse structures with a new, eight-story structure to create the housing and restaurant complex.

"FP3 is a wonderful addition to the Fort Point Channel neighborhood, combining new housing, artist live-work space, and brand new top-notch restaurants that both residents and those who work in the area will be able to take advantage of," said Menino in a statement. "We're particularly pleased to see a project in which preservation is at the heart of a creative design, and is truly reflective of Fort Point's one-of-a-kind character."

The public benefits of the new complex include a $145,000 contribution from the Crossroads Initiative, $300,000 towards improving the Boston Fire Museum, and $50,000 to the Wharf Park at the nearby Children's Museum.

The project is slated to be complete in the spring of 2008, with Lynch's restaurants to open earlier.
 
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