Fort Point Infill and Small Developments

Not sure when they did this, but they'vew reopened part of the Congress St. bridge

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and FP3

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I liked it as well. It's such a mash-up, but because the proportions are the same (and the same as the surrounding buildings) it gives it a coherence.
 
kz1000ps said:
Not sure when they did this, but they'vew reopened part of the Congress St. bridge

img5210tq8.jpg
Click to expand...
They opened it either last Monday or Tuesday. That intersection up there by Russia Wharf is still a pain in the ass though.
 
i agree. the infill at fp3 is pretty seamless. i appreciate the three colors of brick. good work. i'm still not convinced by the "green" pieces on the upper floors. I'm guessing it's a play on the patina of the "wharf co." seals around the district? But, it does give some variety in the massing....
 
fp3 is really amazing looking. There's coherence, but a lot of variety in the materials. I like the greens and dark blues up top, the black metal, and the brick (obviously).
 
Can we just be done with it and name Hacin Boston's honorary architect? I toured FP3 extensively this week and its so seemlessly modern and contextual that it puts virtually every other development in this city to shame.
 
Channel Center -
I don't know what these are for, but there's 10 of them about 12 feet apart along A St.
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ADD Inc undressed
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I really like the details on that. Well done...though the yellow and green looks a little weird to me.
 
Brokers: Fort Point Condo Project Too Pricey for Neighborhood
By Thomas Grillo
Reporter


B&T staff photo by Thomas Grillo
FP3, Boston?s newest condominium development in the Fort Point neighborhood.


Marketing for FP3, the $55 million luxury condominium project behind Boston?s Children?s Museum, is off to a rough start.

An open house at the former Congress Street warehouses that have been transformed into 92 condos was canceled two weeks ago. The reason? Berkeley Investments, the project?s Boston-based developer, lacked an occupancy permit.

But that?s not the only oops. The units are too pricey in the emerging neighborhood that lacks a supermarket, a dry cleaner and a Star-bucks, say brokers.

?I love the building, and the condos are spectacular,? said Anthony Longo, founder of CondoDomain.com, an online agent who exclusively represents buyers. ?But they are overpriced by about 10 percent.?

John A. Keith, a Boston real estate broker who publishes a blog, said one Realtor told him the pricing for FP3 was ?too rich for the neighborhood.?

Touted as the ?new standard in Fort Point living,? two units are under agreement, according to the MLS Property Information Network, but for substantially lower than the original list price. A second floor, one-bedroom dwelling was listed last fall for $555,000. In February, the price was slashed to $431,000, a 22 percent drop.

Another one bedroom on the same floor was listed for $629,000 until the listing broker chopped the price to $525,000, a 16.5 percent discount. In both cases, the final sales price will not be known until the closing ? and it could be even lower.

Get to the Point
It?s not what Berkeley Investments had in mind in 2004 when it paid $100 million to the Boston Wharf Co. for 12 properties, including the FP3 buildings.

Just before the groundbreaking last spring, Young K. Park, Berkeley?s president, told The Boston Globe, ?Congress Street is going to be where lots of restaurants and stores are, the heart of the whole district, where people want to hang out.?

Maybe, but not yet. And while the project was in the planning and construction phase, something else happened: the residential real estate market collapsed.

FP3 combined a wharf-warehouse complex and a new penthouse to make an 8-story structure with first-floor retail. Located at 346-354 Congress St., the project combines new residences with a 15,000-square-foot eatery and 3,000 square feet of retail space for a fine dining restaurant, a martini bar, a casual eatery and a market.

The studios and one- and two-bedroom condos range from 600 to 2,000 square feet, and were originally priced between $369,000 and $2 million.

Rick Griffin, a Berkeley vice president, dismissed any suggestions that sales are sluggish. He said while none of the sales have been recorded at the Suffolk Registry of Deeds, his office has purchase & sale agreements for 38 units or 40 percent of the building. He acknowledged that several units were purchased by an investor, but declined to provide specifics. When asked to explain why MLS only has only two units under agreement, he said many of the dwellings were not placed on the service because each listing cost about $250 a month.

Griffin acknowledged the sales team lowered the cost of some units following feedback from potential buyers. He said the prices on the second floor were cut because buyers feared noise from the first-floor retailers. Prices in some of the upper units were raised up to 4 percent, he added.

But of the eight units listed on MLS none of the prices show increases, while a two bedroom on the 6th floor had its original price of $749,000 cut to $660,000, an 11.8 percent cut.

?My sense is the prices should be higher,? said Griffin. ?Will prices appreciate in two years? Maybe not. But I?ve told buyers that they won?t lose value ... I can?t argue that the neighborhood has a way to go, but we?re part of the turnaround.?
Click to expand...

http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/pub/5_347/commercial/200359-1.html
 
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I know I sound like a broken record here, but this is yet another development where they have sales running the marketing. In today's world, you need to have a professional marketing agency to create the branding, and separately a professional sales team to list and sell them. You don't ask Ferrari sales people to create Ferrari ads, and you shouldn't ask condo sales people to create condo ads.

FP3, Station Landing, 45 Province, Battery Wharf, Northpoint, Broadluxe - all were done without a branding campaign. The ad in the Globe for FP3 is laughable. I looked at it and thought "this is going to fail"

Ugh, I hate it - because FP3 is one of my favorite little developments in a while. Local developers like Berkeley have to jump on the branding bandwagon like all the national firms have.
 
I've got to stop with the meth ... I have absolutely no memory of giving that quote in the article.
 
Boston Herald - July 25, 2008
Hub developer will now save two Fort Point warehouses
By Scott Van Voorhis | Friday, July 25, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate
Photo
Photo by Herald file

A developer with grand plans for redeveloping a key swath of the Fort Point Channel neighborhood is now looking at renovating, rather than tearing down, a pair of the area?s signature Victorian-era warehouse buildings.

Richard Galvin, president of Commonwealth Ventures, said yesterday he is exploring plans to redevelop a 200,000-square-foot complex of early-1900s warehouse buildings at 5 Channel Center. Galvin, who is now in discussions with City Hall and neighborhood groups, is looking at putting as many as 130 rental units in the buildings.

?We decided let?s try and keep these buildings,? Galvin said. ?I believe it?s more in keeping with the historic character of the site.?

The move represents a significant shift from plans laid out for the area by its previous developer, Beacon Capital Partners. The deep-pocketed Hub real estate firm, owned by the Leventhal family, in 2001 unveiled plans for a sweeping redevelopment of a block of old Fort Point warehouse buildings on what was then Midway Street.

While Beacon planned to preserve a number of the buildings, it also had ambitious plans for hundreds of new luxury condos.

It had lined up permits to tear down the buildings at 5 Channel Center as part of a second phase of condo construction, but wound up selling the project first.

Commonwealth Ventures, which took over the project last year during a downturn in the real estate market, has taken a different approach.

Instead of expensive condos, it is now looking at more modestly priced rentals that might provide a less expensive alternative to young professionals looking for a place in the city.

Commonwealth Ventures? plans have gone over well in Fort Point, an up-and-coming residential enclave that features the region?s largest artists? community.

?If we can just preserve as many of the buildings as possible, that is a wonderful thing,? said Becky Dwyer, a longtime Fort Point resident and artist.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1109023
Click to expand...
 
^^ The shift to rental units is likely the driving force here. Still pretty cool news. Maybe Galvin realized that he can't build something better. Maybe he should talk to Druker.
 
Glad to hear this. No reason to tear down perfectly fine warehouses, which help define the character of that neighborhood.
 
^^ Well not really as they are not being used as warehouses. ;)

But still, this is a good thing.
 
If I had $$$ I would rather live in a BWC warehouse than some new pre-fab condo anyday.
 
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