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

Status
Not open for further replies.
Dear God, not the shadow argument again. Might as well ban trees in the common, and tear down the big dig because of the shadows on the roadway
 
Sounds like this is a fairly routine step in the development process. Obviously the developer needs to take care not to damage nearby historic buildings such as Old South.
 
It seems that all of these commissions and boards and community groups have opinions on most projects, however that does not necessarily mean that it will stop a project...it's only when the media picks up on something like this we get fired up.
 
I find these reasons to be more stupid as ever. 33 Arch St. is right next door and it causes no problems. The construction didn't affect anything at all and 45 Province St. is also going up nearby. I think these preservationist need to stick their foot up their mouths.
 
This same thing came up with 33 Arch. I remember an article back in '01 that said they had to cut the height back something like 25 feet to move forward with construction. If the SSG forum didn't crash I'd go back and find it.
 
The Herald said:
Filene?s Basement to grow, gain street entrance
By Donna Goodison
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 - Updated: 01:29 AM EST

Boston?s flagship Filene?s Basement will be 20 percent larger and will provide shoppers with direct access from the street when it reopens at Downtown Crossing in 2009 after a nearly two-year hiatus.
The landmark store, known for its automatic markdowns, will expand to about 80,000 square feet, and from two floors to three floors, after a massive redevelopment of its longtime quarters at the Filene?s building is completed, a company spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. The Herald reported in November that such a plan was under consideration.
The store also will get its first entrances from the street when it reopens. Two separate entrances on Washington Street and Summer Street will open to banks of escalators that will take customers down to the subterranean store, the spokeswoman said. Customers now enter via the former Filene?s space upstairs or underground entrances in the MBTA station.

Owner Retail Ventures Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, continues to search for space to temporarily house Filene?s Basement after it closes later this year, the spokeswoman said. But the landlord of what?s considered the prime Downtown Crossing location for that - the former Barnes & Noble bookstore space on Washington Street - says talks are going nowhere.
?We talk and make offers, and they don?t respond or make absurd counter (offers) indicating that they don?t want to make a deal,? said Robert Posner of Commonwealth Holding LP, the Brookline company that?s offered 49,000 square feet to Filene?s Basement. ?Their last counter was no fixed rent whatsoever. They would move in and pay some unspecified percentage of sales.?
Retail leases typically are structured to include base rent and additional payments based on a percentage of a store?s sales.
Nevertheless, Posner said, he?s trying to keep talks alive. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has stressed the need for the Boston store to remain open to continue to drive shoppers to the troubled retail district.
Meantime, Filene?s Basement is in contract negotiations with 170 United Food and Commercial Workers union employees who are concerned about their fate when the store closes and how they?ll be compensated.
Click to expand...
Link
 
Interesting ...

I hope Filene's Basement can find a home.

But, if they don't, and the store closes, I think all the workers should be laid off. Isn't that what normally happens? You can try to place them in other stores, but if you can't, then unfortunately they're out of luck. That's what would happen to the rest of us.
 
They could be moved to other Filene's Basement locations while the DTX store is clsoed. Seems to me like a reasonable demand.
 
Problem is ...

Problem is, there aren't enough jobs available at the other branches.

According to Tom Brown of Local 1445, the issue holding up the talks is how the company will compensate the 170 employees at Downtown Crossing during its temporary closing.

The Basement is moving out by fall to accommodate redevelopment of the Washington Street building and has said it will return in spring 2009.

Brown said the company has not guaranteed that employees can transfer to other stores or will get their jobs back.

Ann Keefe, vice president/human resources, said "We believe progress is being made. We have had very few transfers in the history of the company, and we do not have many openings at any one point in time in the other stores in the Boston area." - Boston Globe
Click to expand...
 
Why are these people any different than the rest of us? I guess if they don't get paid, then they can't pay their dues. If they can't pay their dues, then the union goes belly up. Oh well.
 
But if they've been around longer than the just-hired employees of the new Back Bay store, shouldn't they be preferred?

This is what labor negotiations are all about.
 
for what possible reason would the workers deserve to get paid?????
Click to expand...

Maybe they are working under a contract.

First the 40 hour week, then the invention of the weekend, now this.... damn those greedy unions! :roll:
 
Meanwhile, if you go there today, you'll see that Filene's Basement has temporarily expanded onto part of the old Filene's first floor.
 
Filene's

It is different than what we first saw in the Globe:

stoweriirc9.png


stowervf3.png
 
Nice. All they need is the 30 story Lafayette Towers they spoke of back in the dinosaur age and we will have a nice canyon of skyscrapers.
 
Really disappointing. It looks like a gigantic piece of HVAC equipment has been plonked down on top of the Filene's building, which is probably the (misguided) intention. The louvers make it look so much like a Big Dig ventilation building that it wouldn't surprise me if that was the inspiration. Except the top, which seems inspired by the JFK highrise. If the architects were going to be such derivative copycats they could have at least chosen better buildings to copy.

filenesimg.jpg
 
rick, where do you get all these great renderings?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top