Company Brings Curtain Down on Proposal for Theater District
By Thomas Grillo
Boston-based Weston Assoc. has decided not to pursue development of 31-45 Stuart St. in Boston, citing a result of changes in the real estate market and issues beyond the control of the project team.
Months after a hotel and condominium tower was proposed for Boston?s Theater District, the developer has withdrawn the controversial plan, citing market conditions.
In a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston-based Weston Assoc. said that as a result of changes in the real estate market and issues beyond the control of the project team, the company has decided not to pursue development of 31-45 Stuart St.
?We made the decision after a careful examination of the market, which has softened considerably,? said David MacKay, Weston?s project manager. ?That, combined with the unique characteristics of the site, helped us reach that conclusion.?
Last year, Weston signaled its intention to build a 28-story building in a parking lot adjacent to the Jacob Wirth Restaurant, a historic eatery near Washington Street that specializes in German food. If approved, the 340,000-square-foot development would have contained 112 hotel rooms on the first six floors, 181 luxury condominiums on the upper levels and 219 underground parking spaces.
But the plan drew strong criticism from two neighborhoods that border the Theater District. The Chinese Progressive Association opposed the project, noting that the tower?s proposed height was nearly twice the legal limit. Meanwhile, the Bay Village Neighborhood Association complained that the project was another example of ?piecemeal development? that provided little pedestrian-friendly activity on La Grange or Stuart streets. The latter group also noted that the tower would not address the ongoing problems of prostitution and drug-dealing that have plagued the area and spilled over into Bay Village.
Both groups were relieved that the project is dead and that the firm no longer holds a controlling interest in the property.
?I?m surprised and delighted by the news,? said Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, a grassroots community organization whose mission is to empower the Chinese community. ?We think this announcement gives the community a breather from yet another tower.?
Mark Slater, Bay Village Neighborhood Association president, said he too was happy to learn that Weston had abandoned the tower idea. ?It?s one less fighting match that we have to get into,? he said. ?Our concern was that the building?s height would set a precedent along Stuart Street. We don?t want to be walled off from the rest of the city.?
MacKay denied that the Boston-based company?s decision to end the project may have been the result of neighborhood opposition. Based on the comments he heard at several public meetings, he said, the community ?supported? the project.
The Next Renaissance
While MacKay insisted that a slowdown in condominium sales was a major reason to abandon the project, sales of condos in Boston have increased by 11.9 percent for the months of November, December and January compared to the same period 12 months earlier, according to the latest data available from The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman.
Still, sales of condominiums priced at $1 million or more in downtown Boston fell by 8.5 percent to 366 units last year, down from 400 in 2005, according to The Warren Group. The luxury market echoed overall condo sales in the Bay State as volume slipped to 30,203 last year, a 12.9 percent decline from 2005.
The proposed Stuart Street project is not the only one put on ice. In January, the Boston Business Journal reported that construction had stopped at Broadluxe, a 9-story residential property at Franklin and Broad streets, due to financial troubles. Contractors were called off the job after the developer, Franklin Realty Advisors, failed to pay the Winchester construction company for work, the BBJ said.
Neither the contractor, Paul Martini, chairman of A.J. Martini Inc., nor the developer Charles F. Norton Jr., president of Boston-based Franklin Realty Advisors, returned calls seeking comment.
Despite the Stuart Street?s project demise, the revitalization of the city?s Midtown Cultural District is a priority for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The mayor has said the new developments will help create the city?s next renaissance and enliven and improve the neighborhood.
Today, the district offers an eclectic group of retailers including a porn shop, Asian restaurants and a donut shop ? most cloaked with steel grates at night to fend off vandalism and the homeless people who loiter in doorways.
Among the projects under construction or in the planning stages are 346 apartments at the Residences at Kensington Place on Washington Street. The 30-story, $115 million project approved by the city also includes 7,378 square feet of ground-floor retail and 2,000 square feet of office space.
The $114 million Archstone Boston Common, the first luxury high-rise apartment community built in downtown in more than 20 years, opened last fall at Lower Washington Street with 420 apartments. The 704,858-square-foot development rises 28 floors above Downtown Crossing. In addition, there is 183,000 square feet of parking on 11 levels with 5,500 square feet of retail. Rents range from $2,000 to nearly $5,000 per month.
In addition, the W Hotel at Tremont and Stuart streets has been approved by the BRA and is slated to include 235 rooms and 123 luxury condominiums on the upper floors. The BRA also gave the green light to the transformation of the former Jae?s Restaurant at 212 Stuart St. The 3-story building was vacated by Jae?s in 1999 and will be razed to make room for an 8-story building that will house 18 condominium units.
?These projects promise to further revitalize our Midtown Cultural District and neighboring Chinatown,? said Menino.
