From the Hines website:
Plan for Residential, Office, Hotel, and Capital Improvments Gets Go-Ahead
6/6/2006
(BOSTON, MA) ? The Boston Redevelopment Authority Board of Directors today approved the South Station Air Rights Project, a unique development that is expected to have profound impact on the city?s economy. The venture will demonstrate the benefits of utilizing air rights, a concept that has numerous potential applications throughout the City of Boston. Also, the project will fulfill city, state, and federal goals of transit oriented development and will contribute major improvements to the existing transportation infrastructure. The project?s developer, Hines and TUDC, LLC, must still petition the Zoning Commission next month for final approval.
?This project uses an innovative approach to combine the creation of new space with one of Boston?s most important transportation assets,? said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. ?We?re talking about putting offices, homes, and hotel rooms literally right on top of public transit.?
The project, which will be constructed in three phases, will produce office, commercial/retail, and hotel uses, as well as a residential component, occupying the air rights between the rear of the historic train station building and the end of the bus terminal. Additionally, the proposal includes major capital improvements to the Station that will realize the collaborative expectations of the BRA, the MBTA, and the Federal Department of Transportation as were originally designated in the transportation center?s Master Plan, authored in the 1970s.
?It is always exciting to see our long-term planning come to fruition,? said BRA Director Mark Maloney. ?This project illustrates how important BRA planning is in making Boston a stronger and more vital city ? now, and well into the future.?
The South Station proposal, submitted by Hines and TUDC LLC, includes a 40-story office tower, a nine-story office building, and a 13-story building that will contain a 200-room hotel as well as up to 195,000 square feet of residential space, 15 percent of which will be designated affordable. Also included in the proposal are approximately $40 million dollars in privately funded, transportation-related improvements for South Station, including increasing the bus terminal?s capacity by approximately 40%.
The project will provide significant economic benefits to the city and the state, generating approximately 2,600 jobs during construction and approximately 6,000 permanent jobs in the hotel and office buildings after completion. Linkage payments will total approximately $10 million, and real estate taxes are anticipated to be approximately $12 million per year, in addition to increased sales and wage tax revenues. Hines Senior Vice President David Perry said total private investment in the project is expected to exceed $800 million.
Plans to redevelop South Station as a major transportation center began in 1963. In 1984, BRA, MBTA and Federal Railroad Administration announced plans for a major intermodal transportation center with commercial development in the air rights above the transportation center. In 1991, the BRA designated TUDC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tufts University, as the developer of the air rights above South Station. TUDC selected Hines to be its co-developer in October 1997, and Cesar Pelli & Associates, Inc. was subsequently selected as the design architect for the Project.
http://www.hines.com/home/default.aspx