Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

I may be mistaken but I believe Parcel A is going to be built as planned with 12000sf being temporarily donated to the City for an "Innovation Lab". Hynes is also going to move his corporate office to this building.
 
BRA press releases for the development of Parcel A moving forward have been issued, published in the Boston Globe and discussed over a number of varying iterations -- never once mentioning the prior (undeveloped) use on the same parcel.

The BRA first announced Hynes was doing a 100+ unit condo. The BRA next announced Hynes was doing a 34-unit condo. The BRA recently announced Hynes was moving forward with the Innovation Lab. All on the same parcel. No one but ArchBoston readers keep track that it's all on the same parcel.

http://www.bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/press/PressDisplay.asp?pressID=445

For the record, the BRA has issued press releases for the approval of approximately 6,250 residential units on Seaport parcels over the past ten years, and the Boston Globe continues to write up articles about all of them. None get developed, but that doesn't seem to matter to readers. The fictional promotion of a critical mass of residential uses and renderings of interesting architecture streamlines the approvals of the actual stumps being built. The renderings serve to assuage the public that a mixed-use district is really in the works.
 
Upscale homes offer rooms with a harbor view
Making waves in Seaport District
By Jennifer Athas / Hot Property
Friday, April 15, 2011 - Updated 9 hours ago


Bston?s Seaport District is rising, and several new, interesting properties will give buyers and renters a front-row seat to the action.

Improvements to the Harbor Walk and a slew of new restaurants are finally turning this under-used area into a 24/7 destination, with even more excitement in store.

On the more luxurious end, Boston Properties has just completed Atlantic Wharf, consisting of residential, restaurant and commercial space between the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway and the harbor.


The Lofts at Atlantic consist of 85 luxury rentals priced from $2,200 to $8,000 per month with amenities including a clubroom lounge, a fitness facility and on-site boat slips.

A new Smith & Wollensky?s and Jody Adams? Trade restaurants will open in the ground floor of Atlantic Wharf, with plenty of outdoor seating along the Harbor Walk.

A more affordable option for renters may be Archon Group?s 63 Melcher St. project, which will include approximately 38 smaller units for about $1,400-$1,600 per month. Construction is slated to begin later this year if all goes well with final permitting. The 63 Melcher project is the first phase of Archon?s 319 A Rear Street project, which will include a 21-story tower featuring 184 rental apartments and 100 parking spaces.

For real estate shoppers looking to buy, FP3 Condominiums, developed by Berkeley Investments, still has some available units going for $400,000 to $2 million. Located directly above Barbara Lynch?s restaurants Sportello and Menton and her latest bar, Drink, residents will never go hungry.

On the drawing board are massive projects with residential components such as Fan Pier ? currently housing the MassChallenge tech incubator and soon to be home to Vertex Pharmaceuticals ? and the Seaport Square development.

Anyone looking to move to the area should keep an eye on those projects as well as the Boston Convention and Exhib-ition Center expansion.

In the past few years, the Seaport has taken great strides and the newest addition is the $60 million Liberty Wharf, which has just been completed by Cresset Development where Jimmy?s Harborside used to be.

This complex has 28,000 square feet of offices and four new restaurants, including Jerry Remy?s, Temazcal Tequila Cantina, Del Frisco?s Double Eagle Steakhouse and a new Legal Sea Foods to be called Legal Harborside, in homage to Jimmy?s.

The Seaport is definitely rising ? catch the wave.


http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1330874
 
The harbor view from Boston sucks lol, all you have to look at is the airport and crummy East Boston. The good view is from East Boston, where you have a stunning view of the FiDi.

Also a sidenote, apparently the Legal Seafoods (that's now partially open) at Liberty Wharf is by far the largest restaurant in the city, about 18000sf.
 
TheRifleman said:
For real estate shoppers looking to buy, FP3 Condominiums, developed by Berkeley Investments, still has some available units going for $400,000 to $2 million. Located directly above Barbara Lynch?s restaurants Sportello and Menton and her latest bar, Drink, residents will never go hungry.

http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1330874
Click to expand...

They may never go hungry.... but they may go broke between the mortgage, condo fee, and paying for overpriced food and drink at those restaurants and bar....
 
As a related aside, MLB took control of McCourt's LA Dodgers today, and will now run the team.
 
TheRifleman said:
Only in Hollywood would a Boston parking lot magnate be in this situation.
Click to expand...

The quote I saw in the news was that McCourt was "severely overleveraged" when he bought the franchise, and Bud Selig's going to take a beating for greenlighting that sale with financial fundamentals that looked a little risky back then before the McCourt marriage reality show sucked everything down the vortex. This also is happening the same season the Mets are up to their eyeballs in Bernie Madoff's creditors.

Not to be too schadenfreudal about it, but better this happened to L.A. than Boston getting another body thrown on top of its growing pile of farcial developer failures. I don't think this freakshow is half as grating to read on a daily basis over there as it would be here. And believe me the Angelinos find the McCourts pretty goddamn grating and work up a lot of bile by their standards over this.
 
Designs for Seaport complex buildings due this fall
By Casey Ross
Globe Staff / June 2, 2011


The developer of Seaport Square on the South Boston Waterfront will submit final designs this fall for the first three buildings in a massive development that will include offices, stores, and hundreds of homes.

Yesterday, developer John B. Hynes III said he has hired architects to design a pair of 20-story residential towers on Seaport Boulevard near the federal courthouse, plus a one-story structure that will house an innovation center to spur collaboration between new companies in the district.

The 23-acre project would replace parking lots that occupy much of the buildable land on the waterfront, which is drawing interest from medical and technology companies looking to relocate.

The development is a joint venture of Hynes?s firm, Boston Global Investors, and Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds.

?We find ourselves in the position of rolling out a substantial amount of activity at Seaport Square to begin satisfying the various components that will make up and enhance the innovation district,?? Hynes said in a statement.

His comments came as Boston?s mayor, Thomas M. Menino, announced new initiatives to attract more venture capital-backed firms to the waterfront and to encourage them to develop buildings that can accommodate solar power.

The mayor did not identify any specific incentives to attract venture-backed firms, but his administration recently used a $12 million property tax break to help bring Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. to the Fan Pier development, across from Seaport Square.

Menino said he hopes businesses will be attracted in part by the opportunity to collaborate with their peers on new business.

?We know that million-dollar VC deals, billion-dollar development deals, and business hires routinely happen outside of the office in common spaces,?? Menino said in a speech at Boston College?s Citizen Seminar.

?We will be one of the first cities in the world to have a public innovation center ? a place that fosters this type of collaboration.??

Hynes said the innovation center at Seaport Square will be designed by the Boston architecture firm Hacin + Associates Inc., which drafted plans for the nearby FP3 housing complex. The building will contain 12,000 square feet on a single story.

The residential towers, with 300,000 square feet, will be designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects.

Elkus Manfredi also helped design the adjacent Fan Pier development by Joseph Fallon and the new Liberty Wharf, a development of restaurants and offices farther down Northern Avenue.

A spokesman for Hynes said he has not selected a start date for construction, but hopes to proceed soon after submitting final design plans to city regulators in September.


Link
 
Why? They did an excellent job for Emerson College with the Paramount Center.
 
Menino must have the Green light from the state for the taxpayers money on this deal. This deal IMHO is done. Very sad what has happened to this country especially now when the politicans have become the developers and business partners on these deals with money they don't even have.


Mike said:
Designs for Seaport complex buildings due this fall
?We find ourselves in the position of rolling out a substantial amount of activity at Seaport Square to begin satisfying the various components that will make up and enhance the innovation district,?? Hynes said in a statement.

His comments came as Boston?s mayor, Thomas M. Menino, announced new initiatives to attract more venture capital-backed firms to the waterfront and to encourage them to develop buildings that can accommodate solar power.

The mayor did not identify any specific incentives to attract venture-backed firms, but his administration recently used a $12 million property tax break to help bring Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. to the Fan Pier development, across from Seaport Square.

Link
Click to expand...

This should be against the law to enrich a private developer with taxpayers money to lure a client to lease out your building.

Somebody should ask Hynes what happened to his downtown project? Hopefully you don't blow another hole in the ground and run away without proper financing.
 
We will have to see, about the city giveaways. I didn't notice that part about "incentives" until you mentioned it.

I was thinking earlier today, it doesn't seem as though Hynes is as pushy (or lucky) as the other developers; I haven't heard him mention asking for or getting any money. I thought he said, "No, never, no way," in regard to Seaport and tax gimmes, I could be wrong.

He's already kissed the ring by promising to build the one-story innovation building as part of Phase I. Perhaps this will placate the mayor?
 
Oh, and I'm getting increasingly pissed off about the lack of attention the press is playing to this whole Vertex thing.

"The mayor did not identify any specific incentives ... but his administration recently used a $12 million property tax break to help bring Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. to the Fan Pier development ..."

They should always make clear that Vertex is not the one getting the break, it's Joe Fallon & The Fallon Company, right? They are the developer & Vertex is only leasing.
 
JohnAKeith said:
Oh, and I'm getting increasingly pissed off about the lack of attention the press is playing to this whole Vertex thing.

"The mayor did not identify any specific incentives ... but his administration recently used a $12 million property tax break to help bring Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. to the Fan Pier development ..."

They should always make clear that Vertex is not the one getting the break, it's Joe Fallon & The Fallon Company, right? They are the developer & Vertex is only leasing.
Click to expand...

Basically Menino and the city used Taxpayers money to enrich a developer (Joe Fallon) who probably overpaid for the entire Fan Pier project.
I would love to know the backroom deal Menino got from Fallon on this one. Might have made him a million on this deal alone. Since Menino is in the paper everyday promoting the area with a new convention center that will cost the taxpayers additional 200 Million.

This what I see. Deval Patrick owed Menino a favor for helping him get reelected so the state handed over 50 Million in stimilus funds for infrastructure for the Seaport District so the taxpayers can pay 500 dollars an hour to the union shitheads put up signs and stand around with their hands up their ass.

The city gave an additional 12 million in tax breaks to Vertex for moving there. The state added another 10 Million for adding jobs.

Granted the city of Boston has closed a good amount of city schools.
Patrick and Menino are buying votes for the upcoming elections to lock in the UNIONS.
It might be time to really leave this corrupt state.
The Unions are so stupid that the city govt's are crying poor and they just actually started taxing their personal pensions after 30 years of service.

Pretty Fucked how the taxpayers actually bailed out Joe Fallon. The real question could Joe Fallon convince Vertex to relocate without Taxpayers help.
 
I was thinking about your comment about "leaving this corrupt state" while running this afternoon. Where would it be any different? If you plan on living in an urban center, what would be better? Manhattan? Chicago? San Francisco? All have their weaknesses. At least here, with our strong mayor system, things can get "done". I think the wrong guy's in charge, but at least things get pushed through. I don't know about other cities, though. It seems things move at glacial speed in San Francisco (meaning, slow) and Chicago of course is notorious for back-room deals. I think Bloomberg did great for two terms, but he has only himself to blame for staying long past his expiration date. There is plenty of anti-growth sentiment in NYC, too, right? Maybe it's large enough that no one person can control the city like we have here in Boston, maybe.

I live in Boston because I grew up here and most people end up staying close to where they grew up. I would be wary of moving to another state because I like the liberal craziness of our state, even though I don't always agree with it.

In Boston, anyone can stick out and make a name for himself/herself, in business, the arts, politics, or anything. It's small enough. If I lived in NYC, I'd be one small stone in a quarry. (Can't think of an analogy.) Here, I write one single online newspaper column and I get a city councilor's skirt all up in a bunch! That wouldn't be possible, elsewhere.
 
JohnAKeith said:
I was thinking about your comment about "leaving this corrupt state" while running this afternoon. Where would it be any different? If you plan on living in an urban center, what would be better? Manhattan? Chicago? San Francisco? All have their weaknesses. At least here, with our strong mayor system, things can get "done". I think the wrong guy's in charge, but at least things get pushed through. I don't know about other cities, though. It seems things move at glacial speed in San Francisco (meaning, slow) and Chicago of course is notorious for back-room deals. I think Bloomberg did great for two terms, but he has only himself to blame for staying long past his expiration date. There is plenty of anti-growth sentiment in NYC, too, right? Maybe it's large enough that no one person can control the city like we have here in Boston, maybe.

I live in Boston because I grew up here and most people end up staying close to where they grew up. I would be wary of moving to another state because I like the liberal craziness of our state, even though I don't always agree with it.

In Boston, anyone can stick out and make a name for himself/herself, in business, the arts, politics, or anything. It's small enough. If I lived in NYC, I'd be one small stone in a quarry. (Can't think of an analogy.) Here, I write one single online newspaper column and I get a city councilor's skirt all up in a bunch! That wouldn't be possible, elsewhere.
Click to expand...


Boston is a great city but it's not because of the Mayor or the local political hacks. I really believe with the Colleges & Hospitals this city offers it should be one of the BEST in the world. I constantly say this because it is true. Colleges are almost depression proof especially when you have MIT & Harvard the brightest students around the world in Cambridge which the schools have also been in expansion mode for the last 20 years.

Good question about moving to another city, forget moving to another city like you said maybe to another country. Politics in general are very corrupt in every city. I believe Menino is as corrupt as they come. No man or women in this country should serve more than 3 or 4 terms in any office. This country needs term-limits like the presidency. America has become very unbalanced. But I'm not going to get into this because this is the BostonDevelopment Board.

Boston Development has missed alot of great opportunties and at this point is heavly dependent on the colleges expanding because of the costs of doing business around here for startups and small business's.

Small business's actually build the character of a city IMHO not corporations.

Just look at how Somerville/Cambridge have evolved with Tufts, Harvard, all the cool small Mom/Pop restaurants from other countries / mixed with the best biotech corporations in the world. It's AWESOME in Davis, Union, Kendall, Harvard (Little too corporate now with a bank on every corner) But overall this is the best place to go walking in MASS in my opinion for the best vibe.

I would say that the biggest disappointments since America has had the biggest trillion dollar real estate boom in History is the city of BOSTON progress.

Negative development areas
North Station (Just doesn't feel like the old Boston)
Kenmore (Ditto)
Seaport/Fan Pier (should be Boston sports mecca area with Cubs neighborhood feel)
Columbus Ave (absolute Disgrace)
The Greenway (Poor Planning)
Downtown (looks like a warzone)
South Station/Tommy's Tower (can we get a 800FT building in the city)
The skyline looks very old and decreped
Chinatown (I actually miss the old 70's and 80's crazy place)


Postive Areas
North END (it still has the local shops but not the locals)
Backbay (always beautiful to walk through)
Boston Common/Fan Hall (Boston at it's Best)
South End (has cleaned up thanks to Northeastern)
Theater District (improving)

Keith you would have been famous pretty much anywhere but LA. I'm sure their are places in this country you would love and others you would hate. Boston is a unique place. I just would love to see some change in the politics in this city and watch the brightest minds help the city grow in a postive way. Plus I know Menino and Fallon are both laughing at the system all the way to the bank.

Just my opinion
 
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Speaking of Colleges

Babson College inks deal for Innovation District lease
Boston Business Journal - by Mary Moore
Date: Friday, June 3, 2011, 2:24pm EDT - Last Modified: Friday, June 3, 2011, 2:48pm EDT

Babson College has signed a lease for 3,500 square feet on Summer Street in Boston's Innovation District, according to a press release issued Friday by Mayor Thomas Menino's office.

Babson will host MBA courses in the new facility at 253 Summer St. starting this September and its plans for the space include lectures and events "and to make it a hub of innovation activity in Boston", according to the release. Babson has built a reputation for its entrepreneurship programs, which have topped college rankings in recent years.

The Innovation District location, part of 1,000 acres on South Boston's waterfront designed to attract a cluster of innovation companies, puts Babson close to downtowns, start-ups, research based companies on the waterfront, and Logan International Airport.

With regard to the MBA classes Babson plans to offer on Summer Street, the college is moving forward to obtain approval from its accrediting body for full-time and evening classes. A limited number of courses will be offered in this facility, which should be convenient to the downtown Boston business community, the press release said.



Read more: Babson College inks deal for Innovation District lease | Boston Business
Journal


http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2011/06/03/babson-goes-to-innov-district.html
 
TheRifleman said:
Negative development areas
North Station (Just doesn't feel like the old Boston)
Kenmore (Ditto)
Seaport/Fan Pier (should be Boston sports mecca area with Cubs neighborhood feel)
Columbus Ave (absolute Disgrace)
The Greenway (Poor Planning)
Downtown (looks like a warzone)
South Station/Tommy's Tower (can we get a 800FT building in the city)
The skyline looks very old and decreped
Chinatown (I actually miss the old 70's and 80's crazy place)


Postive Areas
North END (it still has the local shops but not the locals)
Backbay (always beautiful to walk through)
Boston Common/Fan Hall (Boston at it's Best)
South End (has cleaned up thanks to Northeastern)
Theater District (improving)
Click to expand...

I agree with you on all the positives and most of the negatives. However, North Station and Kenmore are 2 impressive mass transit stations, and some of the nicest looking in a mostly underwhelming MBTA system. I've heard some people (perhaps including yourself) knocking the North Station area for not being grimy enough before, and I just don't see it. It was simply unpleasant to go to the Garden and the area around it before, and the new station is efficient and beautiful, an achievement for which the T doesn't get enough credit.

As for the Wrigley thing: I appreciate the vision, but as someone who lives in Chicago at the moment, Wrigleyville would be impossible to develop on the waterfront. Heck, even the Cubs can't develop any more of it in Wrigleyville. Good authentic neighborhoods take decades to develop, one small lot at a time. I don't know if Hynes and Fallon will do something nice in SBW, but I am very happy Fenway is in Kenmore and not in a sea of parking lots marking a failed "Ballpark Village", with no real transit access.

As for the tax breaks, I think we're jumping the gun a little. It's tax breaks, not a payout. I have no idea how this deal is structured, but I'll guess that the city has given up some portion of it's tax revenue on the site for some period of years (5 to 10). Since the land should be worth much more now than it was as parking, one would hope the city has only cut into that revenue increase to allow that increase to take place. They aren't losing money, they're making less so they'll make any at all (if I'm totally off-base, sorry about that).

Of course, if Boston didn't offer that deal, Burlington would, or Raleigh. I, for one, am happy to see something built here. It can only get better.
 
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