Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Context is everything with tall buildings. One of the main reasons the Empire State Building is so dramatic is because there aren't any other tall buildings around it. The Chrysler Building is just down the street from the Bank of America tower and from a distance their presence is diminished due to the other towers around them.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Groundbreaking next week.

Take 2: New Filene's groundbreaking set
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Work is set begin again at the former Filene’s site in June.

Thomas Grillo
Real Estate Editor-
Boston Business Journal

Nearly five years after construction ground to a halt at the former Filene’s site in Boston’s Downtown Crossing leaving a crater in the city’s shopping district, the new development team has set a groundbreaking for next month.

Millennium Partners, the New York developer who bought Vornado Realty Trust’s (NYSE: VNO) stake in the failed development in April for $45 million, has set June 4 to break ground on a $615 million redevelopment of the site. The 1.3 million-square-foot plan will feature a glass residential tower with 500 units next to the 1912 landmark Burnham building with up to 231,000 square feet of retail. The project will preserve and renovate the historic building – home of the former Filene’s department store and Filene’s Basement – and add a new, 54-story skyscraper to the Hub skyline.

“It’s fabulous,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino told the Boston Business Journal on Wednesday. “It’s great for the city of Boston and it’s great for Downtown Crossing.”

Mortgage documents recorded at the Registry of Deeds said Millennium has taken two loans totaling $128.7 million from HSBC Realty Credit Corp. to finance the project.

Last month, Arnold Worldwide and its sister agency Havas Media, confirmed reports that they will occupancy 125,000 square feet of office space at the Burnham Building starting next year. Burnham is the original Filene’s building that has been gutted.

Vornado originally won approval for the Filene’s project, dubbed One Franklin, in 2008. The 39-story mixed-use project was to include offices, a hotel, residential and retail space, in addition to a new home for the flagship Filene’s Basement discount clothing store. Vornado commenced demolition in 2008 on the $750 million project, but construction was halted within months after funding evaporated, leaving an eyesore in the middle of a major city retail center. While the project stalled, Menino fumed and at one point suggested the city would seize the property through eminent domain.
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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Fantastic. Finally we're going to see some action!
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

So are we supposed to assume that they are starting work on the tower too?
vanshnookenraggen said:
Context is everything with tall buildings. One of the main reasons the Empire State Building is so dramatic is because there aren't any other tall buildings around it. The Chrysler Building is just down the street from the Bank of America tower and from a distance their presence is diminished due to the other towers around them.
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This is why I hope there is never a high spine with a bunch of tall buildings crowding out the Hancock. I already think 111 Huntington has taken away a lot of the Pru's impact.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

gooseberry said:
So are we supposed to assume that they are starting work on the tower too?

This is why I hope there is never a high spine with a bunch of tall buildings crowding out the Hancock. I already think 111 Huntington has taken away a lot of the Pru's impact.
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I think if there are varying heights between towers, then it will still look very tall. Case in point:

Dubai%2BMarina%2B%252811%2529.JPG


The truth of the matter is, the Prudential Tower really isn't very tall, especially when a mere 550 ft tower is enough to make it look short.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Oh my dear lord, that looks like something out of a Time Bandits remake. I'll take the Back Bay please.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

^^^I use Dubai only as an airport hub flying Emirates. Some day I'll have to actually look at the city!
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Originally Posted by gooseberry
So are we supposed to assume that they are starting work on the tower too?

This is why I hope there is never a high spine with a bunch of tall buildings crowding out the Hancock. I already think 111 Huntington has taken away a lot of the Pru's impact.
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I disgaree. A cluster of towers is more impresive than one spike standing alone. Just need to vary the heights and the materials.

The ESB is a truly unique case; arguably the most iconic skyscraper in the world.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

tobyjug said:
^^^I use Dubai only as an airport hub flying Emirates. Some day I'll have to actually look at the city!
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My wife and I flew through Dubai on our honeymoon. I made us stay for 3 days to see the city. A couple observations:
1. You don't need 3 days to see Dubai. We took one of those hop on/off bus tours of the city and three of the first four stops were shopping malls.
2. The architecture is cool if just for it's height. Standing at the foot of Burj Khalifa is so out of scale it's almost disorienting.
3. We need to get off oil. The amount of money spent building things like shopping malls and empty high rises and man made lakes with choreographed fountains is absurd.
4. Dubai is hot as balls.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

gooseberry said:
So are we supposed to assume that they are starting work on the tower too?
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The tower is to be done as a second phase. They only have financing for the Burnham building in the amount of $130m from HSBC.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

kmp1284 said:
The tower is to be done as a second phase. They only have financing for the Burnham building in the amount of $130m from HSBC.
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From the filing on the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, the $130 million in financing was taken against the 1 Franklin address, rather than the 426 Washington address of the Burhnam building. I'm not sure if a bank would allow a developer to collateralize a property not directly linked to the project being financed.

Plus when the Arnold deal was signed, Anthony Pangaro was quoted - at least in the Herald, perhaps elsewhere - that the tower construction would begin once the open side of the Burnham building was enclosed. We may be closer to the tower construction than we think.

I'd be very curious to see how much equity Millennium themselves will put into this project. At Millennium Place, records show they only took out $115 million in financing for a $256 million project. That's financing for less than half of the project.

Also, does the quoted $615 million construction cost only include any work that will occur going forward. The interior of the Filenes building had already been demo'd, and the hole for the tower has already been dug. Is it possible that the costs for that already done work have been figured into the construction cost?

ADDED - I'm sorry to add onto my previous post, but I found something interesting looking through the public records.

It looks like Millennium has a few LLCs formed to do this project.

There looks to be 2 different financings worth about $130 million. One is linked to 1 Franklin street and was granted to MP Franklin Tower Co LLC

But there is a second $130 million in financing package granted to Millennium Franklin Burham CO. LLC for 6-12 Summer Street.

If I am reading this right, they may actually have $260 million in financing.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

KentXie said:
I think if there are varying heights between towers, then it will still look very tall. Case in point:

Dubai%2BMarina%2B%252811%2529.JPG


The truth of the matter is, the Prudential Tower really isn't very tall, especially when a mere 550 ft tower is enough to make it look short.
Click to expand...

Is that supposed to look good? That looks absurdly gaudy to me. I agree with those who'd rather have the JHT and Pru continue to dominate the Back Bay rather than end up with this Dubai crap.

Maybe I dislike it so much because it's ALL new development. Cities like NYC and Chicago can pull off clusters of towers well because it's all SO developed and SO mixed-period. Dubai's Towers in the Desert looks terrible.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

That picture looks terrible to me because there are no low-mid rises
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

BussesAin'tTrains said:
Is that supposed to look good? That looks absurdly gaudy to me. I agree with those who'd rather have the JHT and Pru continue to dominate the Back Bay rather than end up with this Dubai crap.

Maybe I dislike it so much because it's ALL new development. Cities like NYC and Chicago can pull off clusters of towers well because it's all SO developed and SO mixed-period. Dubai's Towers in the Desert looks terrible.
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I'm talking about the fact that the buildings still look tall even when they are not "dominating" the surrounding area.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

I think the garish picture is making people miss the point of the picture.

It was about height variation allowing towers to still look tall (those are all slim so they will look tall regardless), and not about wouldn't it be great if the back bay looked like this....

That picture is the argument for background and bland high rises being a good thing and needed. 30 eye catching towers in cluster looks like ass, but 2 or 3 of those thrown into an standard American big city with lackluster high rises would look pretty good I'd bet.

Edit.... guess I should have hit refresh since I got pre-occupied.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Dubai looks tall because it is tall.

JHT is tall too. It will still look tall next to other tall buildings.

R2D2 doesn't take anything away from the Pru.

Of course "context" is relavent, but it seems like some of you are forgetting to use your eyes. The BB skyline is hollow and thin. It will look better with more tall buildings, even if they are near the JHT.

In fact, JHT is on top of 2 subways and CR. There aren't many better places for a cluster of towers.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

KentXie said:
I'm talking about the fact that the buildings still look tall even when they are not "dominating" the surrounding area.
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They also look tall because you can see the entire structure. If there were mid and low rises like a real city, they'd appear more contextual, and shorter.
 
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