Developers eye fall start for Seaport park, pavilion
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
By: Donna Goodison
Seaport Square’s master developers are seeking city approval for an earlier construction start of Seaport Square Green, a 1-acre park that would be anchored by a new food pavilion.
MS Boston Seaport LLC, a partnership of Boston Global Investors and Morgan Stanley, wants to start the $10 million project in September on South Boston’s waterfront.
The tree-lined public area — a mix of green space and promenades, with plantings and seating — would include the Massachusetts Iraq and Afghanistan Fallen Heroes Memorial, a 50-foot obelisk honoring Bay State servicemen and women killed since Sept. 11, 2001.
“It’s 50 percent green space and 50 percent hardscape because it will be a thoroughfare connecting Seaport Boulevard to Northern Avenue and the waterfront,” said John B. Hynes III, BGI’s CEO. “And east-west, there are pedestrian walkways through the park connecting the food pavilion … and District Hall.
The developers are considering two or three concepts for the food pavilion, including a full-service restaurant on one end and multiple food vendors on the other with a common area seating, according to Hynes. An approximately 3,000-square-foot interactive Fallen Heroes Memorial room also is planned for inside the food pavilion.
Seaport Square is an estimated $3.5 billion, 23-acre, 6.5-million-square-foot, mixed-use development.
MS Boston Seaport also wants to start construction in September on an adjacent 300-room Yotel hotel and the new Our Lady of Good Voyage Chapel, which is being relocated to Seaport Boulevard and Boston Wharf Road. It filed plans last week to add a new four-story office/retail building next to the chapel.