Mandarin Oriental | 776 Boylston St | Back Bay

Re: Mandarin Oriental

Thanks for the pictures KZ, this looks better than I expected up close.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Lrfox said:
That black granite looks rather plasticky in photos, but quite sexy in person. I like the way this one looks a lot.
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I'm looking forward to the contrast of the black granite "cube" and the glass "cube" facade of the new Apple store across the street. The Apple store would seem much more out of place without the Manadarin.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Boston Globe - March 10
Firefighters battling a four-alarm fire at Mandarin Hotel site
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March 10, 2008 08:22 AM

Boston firefighters are battling a four-alarm fire on Boylston Street at the site of the Mandarin Hotel.

The building is currently under construction. Fire officials said the blaze broke out shortly before 8 a.m. this morning at 800 Boylston Street.

Heavy fire was reported near the roof, but it has been knocked down. No injuries are reported.

It's unclear what caused the blaze. The fire is located in several rooms on the fourth floor of the structure. Officials said firefighters will be on the scene for several hours overhauling.
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Re: Mandarin Oriental

Oddly enough, this was in yesterday's Globe:

Boston Globe - March 9
New benchmark for luxury living
Mandarin Oriental's posh rentals are likely to fill quickly, even in slump

By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | March 9, 2008

Who would pay $12,500 a month to rent a two-bedroom, seventh-floor apartment with a few granite and marble countertops and a decent - though hardly spectacular - view of Boston's Back Bay?

"There are a number of people who can afford what this is and understand what we're delivering," said the building's developer, Stephen Weiner.

Indeed, this is not just any apartment. It is one of 25 rental units that will be available in July at the city's poshest new address, the Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Boston.

While the rest of the real estate market remains mired in a slump, the Mandarin provides another reminder of how the rich are different: Already a long list of possible renters are queuing up to pay sky-high rents for the type of services offered by the city's latest high-water mark in luxury, services delivered by the operator of one of the world's most luxurious hotel chains, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. The services include takeout food from Sel de la Terre's boulangerie and charcuterie, or room service from restaurants within the Mandarin complex, dog walking, laundry services, and other amenities.

Already, all 50 of Mandarin's condos, priced between $2 million and $12 million, have sold. Buyers included Chad Gifford, the former chief executive of FleetFinancial Group Inc., and car dealer Herb Chambers.

Nearing the completion of construction on Boylston Street, next to the Prudential Center shopping mall, the Mandarin complex is a blockwide structure. The $240 million project was developed by Weiner's firm, CWB Boylston, in partnership with Mandarin.

His partners at CWB Boylston are Julian Cohen, who developed the high-end Mall at Chestnut Hill, and Robin Brown, who was concierge to the city's elite during his 14 years as the manager of the Four Seasons overlooking the Boston Common. Brown was the one who could find a spare window table on a busy evening at the hotel's Aujourd'hui restaurant or plan a party for a hard-to-please chief executive.

Mandarin tenants will pay some of the highest rents in the city for Weiner's meticulous attention to detailed designs and Mandarin Oriental's pampering. Mandarin's New York hotel charges dearly for those services - a modest room is $900 a night.

Brokers and real estate experts predict the Boston apartments will rent quickly, because there is a shortage of luxury rentals after an era of unprecedented condo development. Even amid a general real estate slowdown, the market for such expensive units has been strong as downtown Boston has become a popular home or second home for wealthy baby boomers.

Mandarin's apartments are located on the fourth through eighth floors of the 14-story building, below the condos. Rents will start at $6,000 a month for a one-bedroom unit and go as high as $12,500 for two bedrooms.

"That doesn't sound outrageous to me," said Debra Taylor Blair, president of Listing Information Network, which tracks Boston's condo market.

A monthly mortgage payment equal to these rents could finance a $1 million or $2 million home. But that's not the way to think about it, Blair said.

First, the tenants will be the ultrarich, for whom the Mandarin's comforts are worth paying for. Second, they may be moving into a new job and in need of housing for just a short period. For example, a Boston-area company may rent one for a new chief executive commuting back and forth to his family living in another state. Third, hard as this may be, Blair suggested viewing the rents through this perspective: "Some people's condo fee is $6,000 a month - like at the Mandarin."

Geoffrey Gibbons, who handles expensive rentals in Back Bay for Coldwell Banker, had no problem imagining who would shell out Mandarin's high rents: private equity and hedge-fund managers, professional athletes, wealthy international families in media, oil, or financial services or technology - or their children attending college in Boston.

He said the Mandarin's rents will be the highest - $7.50 per square foot - among downtown's prestigious addresses, including The Four Seasons Boston, One Charles, and The Belvedere. Apartments on the middle floors of the 20-story Ritz-Carlton Boston Common rent for about $5 a square foot.

Gibbons is trying to rent a penthouse he listed two months ago in Tower 1 of the Ritz-Carlton Boston Common for $30,000 a month. With 4,400 square feet of space, that's $6.80 a square foot for a sprawling unit with four bedrooms, six bathrooms, and 12-foot ceilings. In contrast to Mandarin's apartment, the top of the Ritz has sweeping skyline views.

The luxury in Mandarin's modern apartments is "very crisp and understated," said Arthur Dion, owner of Gallery Naga on Newbury Street, which provided fine artwork for the model apartment, a seventh-floor unit that was also decorated with modern furniture from Ligne Roset.

Each apartment has a foyer - to make the residences more homey - and a separate dining room. Master bedrooms all have a walk-in closet and gleaming, white-marble countertops surround two sinks; the second bedroom has a private bathroom, too. The unit's floor-to-ceiling windows are sound-proofed, effectively shutting out the street noises below.

The Mandarin is adjacent to the Prudential Center's familiar escalators on Boylston Street, which carry shoppers into the mall. Condo and apartment dwellers have a sort of "backdoor" to the Prudential Center from the third floor of the Mandarin that will lead directly into an area being developed for luxury shops.

Brown, with a hard hat on, whisked down the hall and opened the door. He noted tenants will be able to walk indoors all the way to Barneys or to the platform of the Acela Express train to Manhattan - and, he added, "You don't need a coat."

Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.
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Re: Mandarin Oriental

I just walked by there, lots of fire trucks, a few ladders pointed up to the 4th Floor, a number of 4th floor window were broken, but it really doesn't look that bad.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/03/firefighters_ba_4.html
March 10, 2008 08:22 AM

Boston firefighters say a four-alarm fire on Boylston Street at the site of the Mandarin Hotel is under control.

Fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the blaze broke out at 7:43 a.m. on the fourth floor of the 15-story structure at 776 Boylston Street.

He said construction materials in several rooms caught fire.

No injuries were reported. Construction workers were on the scene at the time.

Heavy fire was reported in one part of the building but it was quickly knocked down.

Firefighters will be on the scene for several hours overhauling.

The Mandarin complex,which is a block long project on Boylston Street was nearing completion. About 50 of Mandarin's condos, priced between $2 million and $12 million, have been sold.

Part of Boylston Street has been shut down for fire crews.
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Re: Mandarin Oriental

I guess you could say these units are hot and won't last long.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Boston Globe
Mandarin fire's effect on construction schedule unclear
March 10, 2008 11:46 AM

Mandarin.JPG Construction officials say it is too early to determine whether this morning's fire at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Boylston Street will delay the scheduled July opening of the luxury complex of hotel rooms, apartments, condominiums, and restaurants.

At this point, we need our team at Suffolk to assess the schedule and any potential impacts," said Kim Steimle, a spokeswoman for Suffolk Construction Co. Inc., the primary builder on the $240 million project.

The four-alarm fire broke out at 7:43 a.m. at the 14-story structure in three rooms on the fourth floor containing construction materials, including cabinetry being built for the hotel. The Boston Fire Department is investigating the cause of the fire.

A preliminary inspection of the area, however, indicated the fire largely occurred on the fourth floor, though there may be water damage on lower floors, said deputy fire chief Richard DiBenedetto, who was at the scene. The fire started in the fitness center, which will be used by hotel residents, condo owners, and apartment dwellers in the Mandarin complex, which is part of the Prudential Center.

Steimle said she did not know whether fire damage occurred on the fifth or higher floors.

The Mandarin has created a buzz around town because the condominiums -- priced from $2 million to $12 million -- are among the city's most expensive and are part of a complex being operated by one of the world's most expensive hotel chains. Well-known business leaders who have purchased condos in the project include auto dealer Herb Chambers and Bank of America Corp. chairman emeritus Chad Gifford.

. Steimle said condos are on the ninth floor and above.

"We believe at this point it [the fire] was limited to the hotel portion of the building," she said. "It did not impact the condo area."

For previous Globe coverage of the Mandarin Oriental project, click here.

(By Kimberly Blanton, Globe staff)
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Re: Mandarin Oriental

Boston Globe - March 11
Fire damages Mandarin Oriental
Four-alarm blaze could delay grand opening of luxury hotel and condominium complex

By Kimberly Blanton and John Ellement, Globe Staff | March 11, 2008

The July opening of the city's poshest hotel and condominium project, the Mandarin Oriental, could be delayed after a four-alarm fire yesterday caused water and smoke damage to the 14-story Back Bay building.

About a dozen hotel rooms on the fourth and fifth floors, around where the fire started, suffered smoke damage and will have to be repaired, said Robin Brown, a partner with CWB Boylston, which is developing the Mandarin, a blockwide complex on Boylston Street. There was no smoke damage to 50 luxury condominiums, which are located on floors nine through 14, or to the luxury apartments, which are on the opposite side of the building from where the fire occurred.

"There was an almost indistinguishable smell of smoke. The smoke somehow got out of the building," said Brown. "I was pleasantly surprised by the little other damage that I witnessed."

The actual blaze was confined to three rooms that make up a fitness center on the fourth floor, the Boston Fire Department said. There was also water damage in an empty retail arcade below the fitness center, said Brown, who toured the building after the fire. He and the developer's builder, Suffolk Construction, each indicated the fire may cause a modest delay to the Mandarin's opening.

Fire Department spokesman Stephen MacDonald said arson was ruled out. While the official cause has not been determined, cigarette butts were found in an impromptu smoking area used by construction workers near the source of the fire, where cabinets were being fashioned for installation and marble tiles were being stored, he said.

Some 350 construction workers were inside the construction site when the fire broke out at 7:45 a.m. yesterday but were able to evacuate immediately; two firefighters were treated for minor injuries. MacDonald said the fire caused an estimated $2 million in damage.

When the fire was discovered, construction workers at the scene said colleagues shouted warnings up the open elevator shaft and others called each other on cellphones. They rushed downstairs in what was described as a generally orderly evacuation.

The fire did its heaviest damage not to the Boylston Street side - where firefighters smashed about a dozen windows as they fought the fire - but in the rear, where the fitness rooms overlook a central garden. Flames shot out of the fitness center windows.

Frank Jevoli said he and others immediately noticed heavy smoke as they stepped off the elevator onto the fourth floor yesterday morning. A foreman with the Laborers Union, Local 22, Jevoli said he promptly alerted co-workers to evacuate.

"You couldn't see nothing" through the smoke, he said.

Brown said the damage was limited due to sheer luck: Much of the water from fire hoses spraying into the building fell down an elevator shaft and smoke went up stairwells and shafts that were open on the roof because the building is under construction. He also credited a rapid response from firefighters for checking the damage.

The fire comes less than four months before the scheduled opening of the $250 million luxury condominium and hotel complex, which will be operated by the Mandarin Oriental Group Inc., a five-star hotel chain with a worldwide reputation that turns on perfection. The project, adjacent to Prudential Center, includes 150 hotel rooms, 25 rental apartments, and 50 condominiums, all of which have already sold for $2 million to $12 million. The complex will also include fine restaurants such as Boston's renowned L'Espalier, which is relocating to Mandarin, and a charcuterie and boulangerie at Sel de La Terre.

Mandarin Oriental offers top-drawer services and amenities ranging from dog walking and concierge service to delivering rib eye steaks, prepped for grilling, to rooftop patios.

Some of the Mandarin's condo owners who were out of town called their brokers to find out the extent of the damage to their multimillion-dollar condos.

Geoffrey Gibbons, a broker for Coldwell Banker on Newbury Street, said two concerned owners called to see what he knew about the damage. The fire and potential delay "is a setback no matter how you look at it," he said.

Another condo buyer, former FleetBoston Financial Group chief executive Charles Gifford, said he was assured by CWB partners Stephen Weiner and Brown there was "not a problem" with his condo.

"I've already moved on," Gifford said from his home in Ocean Reef in the Florida Keys.

Brown was crestfallen when he learned of the fire as he was driving up to the building to go to work. But, he added, "I've been in the hotel business 35 years. We'll deal with it."

Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.
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Re: Mandarin Oriental

Any news on opening date?

Taken today, April 5

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Re: Mandarin Oriental

Looks a lot better than what used to be there.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Wish we could get something like that up our way. Not the entire massive thing just like a narrower slice.


Looks nice.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental opening delayed

March fire forces postponement

By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | April 12, 2008

The grand opening of the city's most luxurious hotel and condominium complex, Mandarin Oriental, Boston, will be delayed by at least two months so developers can repair damage from a fire last month.

The Boylston Street hotel complex, which includes stores and restaurants, will now open in "early fall, 2008," the Boston developer of the $250 million project, CWB Boylston, said yesterday. The Mandarin, which will house new digs for the restaurant L'Espalier, had been scheduled to open in July.

Developers said the complex's opening primarily had to be delayed because many of the items that were damaged by the fire were unique and custom made, including stonework from Israel and India, cabinets from Montreal, and wool carpets from the United Kingdom.

"Replacement of those items entails extraordinary lead times for reordering and reinstalling," CWB Boylston said.

Debra Taylor Blair, the president of Listing Information Network Inc., which tracks the downtown condo market, said the delay would inconvenience Mandarin condo owners, who paid up to $12 million for their units. Many may have already sold their existing residences and had planned to move in this summer, she said.

On March 10, a fire swept through the Mandarin's spa and fitness center on the fourth floor, causing smoke damage in the fitness area and about a dozen of the surrounding hotel rooms.

Geri Denterlein, the developer's spokeswoman, said the hotel operation would be only minimally affected by the delay; there were just a handful of event bookings, and the hotel had not begun taking room reservations, she said.

"We continue to make every possible effort to secure the earliest possible opening date," the developers said.
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http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/04/12/mandarin_oriental_opening_delayed/
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Developers said the complex's opening primarily had to be delayed because many of the items that were damaged by the fire were unique and custom made, including stonework from Israel and India, cabinets from Montreal, and wool carpets from the United Kingdom.

"Replacement of those items entails extraordinary lead times for reordering and reinstalling," CWB Boylston said.
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Seems they certainly didn't skimp on the interior. The story of new Boston development: Interiors sell; exteriors...who gives a damn.

Albeit the Mandarin is better than most new developments, but it still falls far short of what it promised.

And saying better than most in this town lately isn't saying much at all.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

^Isn't that the history of the city? I've walked into plenty of triple deckers that look like trash from the outside and you go in and it looks like a mansion from 1900. It sort of follows the personality, Miami and the like worry more about the exteriors. (cant spell, I know this) Not that I agree with it, but it sort of follows tradition
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Should have been taller here and there Imo,I like the way it looks like 3 or 4 different buildings but not all the same hieght,Now they need to do something with the building on the corner,this looks like a rehab of an older taller building?
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

A little dissapointing...but what can we expect, we live in Boston!

That interior does sound very nice. Sometimes whether it would kill developers to maybe cut back a little on the interior details and invest more in the exteriors...but they have customers to please (just like everyone else) and I am sure that they are more concerned with the interior than anything else...
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

Picture time! They are small but you can see them bigger here.

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Final verdict: I just don't like this building. I don't know why, I don't hate it. It isn't offensive. I think that might be it, it is too safe. I don't really know.
 
Re: Mandarin Oriental

van - I was a big fan (if you will) of that sign:




Good to see the sidewalk on that side of the street is now open. Will be interesting when the entrances from the street and from the Pru are opened too.
 
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