Lovejoy Wharf - Hoffman Building | 160 North Washington Street | West End

That looks no different from the last design I saw.

justin
 
Lovejoy Wharf to feature Hub's first automated garage
Boston Business Journal - 3:57 PM EDT Tuesday, March 20, 2007


The developers of Lovejoy Wharf have selected APT Parking Technologies to build Boston's first automated garage.

Lovejoy Wharf's developers, Ajax Wharf LLC and AIG Global Real Estate, selected New York-based APT Parking, which designs and builds automated parking garages with its partner Westfalia Technologies, to incorporate the garage into the $200 million mixed-used development.

APT's president, Lee Lazarus, declined to comment about how much it would cost to build the garage but said on average, automated garages cost $25,000 per parking space to build. The garage at Lovejoy Wharf in Boston's North End neighborhood is 300 spaces and only the fourth to be built in the United States, according to Lazarus. Aside from a 300-space garage in New York City, the Lovejoy Wharf facility will be among the largest automated garages in the United States.

Lovejoy Wharf is a 455,000-square-foot project that contains 250 residential units and 40,000 square feet of office and retail space. The project is expected to break ground in the summer and be completed by 2009.

"This is the first automated parking garage to be built within a major mixed-use development in the U.S. ," said Lazarus in a statement. "The selection of our parking system highlights how automated parking can enhance a real estate development opportunity."


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Re: Lovejoy Wharf

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Friday, October 16, 2009 | Modified: Monday, October 19, 2009, 9:32am EDT
Lovejoy Wharf delays lead owners to consider sale
Boston Business Journal - by Michelle Hillman

The owners of the dilapidated Lovejoy Wharf in Boston?s North End are pondering the sale of the residential project after years of stalled development.

Industry sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said the current owners ? Ajax Investment Partners LLC, AIG Global Real Estate and Anglo-Irish Bank Corp. PLC ? are evaluating a possible sale or the addition of a new financial partner.

Jason Miller, a principal in Ajax?s New York office, declined to comment. Locally, Ajax hired Colliers Meredith & Grew to determine the level of interest among potential buyers or investors, according to sources. Leigh Freudenheim, a senior vice president and partner at Colliers, confirmed he is the building agent but declined to comment further.

The project, which is approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, is being marketed quietly. Sources said if the project were to be sold, the proceeds would likely go toward paying down senior debt, with Ajax getting little or no profit from the sale. However, an outright sale is considered unlikely since there is little to no demand for new condo developments in Boston.

Lovejoy Wharf, which gained attention for being the first project in Boston where a 300-space automated garage would be built, was supposed to break ground in the summer of 2007 and be completed this year. At the time, the 455,000-square-foot project was reported to cost $200 million and include 250 residential units and 40,000 square feet of retail space featuring a 300-seat restaurant.

Ajax planned to demolish the top two floors of the site?s existing nine-story building, known as the Hoffman Building, at 160 North Washington St. and add four new floors, according to Ajax?s Web site.

It also would construct a 14-story structure and demolish the current building at 131 Beverly St. Lovejoy Wharf is located on the harbor between Boston?s North End and Charlestown neighborhoods. It is near the TD Garden and has views of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.

The project struggled to get off the ground after the developers angered nearby residents of Strada 234 who, in 2005, said the building heights would block their views. The tallest portion of the project would reach a height of 155 feet. Residents of Strada 234 sued the developers and have tied the project up in court. A new owner would likely face the same push-back from neighbors, said Vivien Li, executive director of Boston Harbor Association.

Li said a new buyer or investor might want to scale back the project or reduce the number of residential units as other developers across the city have done.

?I think with the economy the way it is I don?t know if we?ll hear or see anything in the near future,? Li said.


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Re: Lovejoy Wharf

It's so unbelievable that a few residents of a neighboring building have basically killed this project! More unbelievable that it wasn't thrown out of court early on! Views get blocked or changed all the time, whether in a city or in the burbs.
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

The one thing that did get built here was the Harborwalk extension, a boardwalk connecting the back of this property to the tennis courts and hockey rink on the other side of the North Washington Street bridge.
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

Who the devil does Vivien Li think she is to offer up her opinion on this?

:: Edited with kindness ::
 
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The Boston Society of Architects gave her an award and honorary title. She now has that endorsement to use as a bully pulpit.
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

Really, though, she's a fraud. I wonder what her actual credentials are? What is her major in? Does she have a real job, or is the BHA or whatever crock-of-sh*t organization she runs count as one?
 
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This is downstream from the New Charles River Dam, so it's part of the harbor and has part of the Harborwalk. Seems reasonable to me that an organization representing harbor interests will have its say.
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

A beautiful, yet neglected warehouse currently slowly and dangerously listing itself into the Charles River/Harbor is better than a building in active use which engages the harborwalk. Remember that shadows could be involved.
 
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How much would the mass of the existing building be expanded? How high is 155 feet above the height of the existing structure? Wouldn't it only detract morning sunlight from residents of strada on the west side of that building? Is that worse than having a dilapidated building nextdoor? Assuming the neighbors are rational, what could they want from the Lovejoy developer for his variance (assuming he needs one)?
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

kennedy said:
Really, though, she's a fraud. I wonder what her actual credentials are? What is her major in? Does she have a real job, or is the BHA or whatever crock-of-sh*t organization she runs count as one?
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She has done a lot of good for this city. More than most people on this forum, I'd wager. I understand that the posters in this forum do not often see eye to eye with her, but we should attempt to see that she is doing what she feels is best for Boston. As for credentials...

The Boston Globe said:
Vivien Li went on to Barnard, majoring in environmental management. She'd received enough publicity for her activism in high school that the mayor of Newark, Ken Gibson, asked her to work part time on urban environmental issues like rodent control and lead poisoning. After a year's fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a program on energy conservation, she brought one of her professors back with her to Newark to develop systems for conserving heat in municipal buildings.

In 1978, Li moved on to the National Urban League to work with Ron Brown and Vernon Jordan, future stars of the Clinton administration. "Both of them wore business suits, not dashikis," she notes. "They went out of their way to be non-threatening." Jordan particularly impressed her with his ability to switch from "ghetto talk" with the hipsters on the staff to corporate-speak with CEOs and board members. The Boston Redevelopment Authority brought her to the city in 1979 to tackle air-pollution issues. After she earned a master's degree in public administration from Princeton in 1983, a former Newark colleague, Bailus Walker, hired her to deal with environmental health issues in the state. At the time, Walker was Massachusetts's public health commissioner. In 1988, Li joined Dukakis's gubernatorial staff. After Dukakis's defeat that year in a presidential campaign that hinged, in part, on the pollution of Boston Harbor, Li hung on for the remaining two years of his term, tearfully paring the budget for women's issues that she'd worked so hard to expand. Then The Boston Harbor Association came calling.
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Re: Lovejoy Wharf

Lurker said:
A beautiful, yet neglected warehouse currently slowly and dangerously listing itself into the Charles River/Harbor is better than a building in active use which engages the harborwalk. Remember that shadows could be involved.
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one needs a better metric than merely improving on the existing condition....
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

What's the building that's in front of the Lovejoy Wharf that has the huge Celtics logo on it?
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

Nope, across from the Garden. I know the building next door holds Celtics offices, this one might too.
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

Do you mean the Submarine Signal Building?
 
Re: Lovejoy Wharf

The building I'm talking about is the same side where the Lovejoy Wharf is. If you're on RT.93 going into the tunnel, it's on the left hand side. You can't miss this building. It's really old looking. Everytime I'm stuck in traffic, I always wonder what that building is. It looks vacant and has been there before the bigdig project.
 
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