South Station Tower | South Station Air Rights | Downtown

Re: South Station Tower

Not to get too off topic, but if any of you follow the progress/issues involving the construction at the WTC site in New York (Transport HUB, 1 WTC), there are a lot of eerie similarities to the Big Dig.

The emotional and poitical nature of that project probably makes it harder for the media/government watchdog types to squawk too much about it.
 
Re: South Station Tower

SeamusMcFly said:
A. a company going out of business has nothing to do with whether Union workers made boku bucks off the big dig. Part of it is a shell game, and part of it is the company name taking the heat. The people who worked there are by and large still doing just fine.
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I miss-understood buju. I thought the comments were about companies getting rich.
And my 70 cents on the dollar comment also related to companies. At the end of the job the CA/T authority basically said to several companies, we don't have the money to pay you for all the extra work we directed you to do. So we'll give you 70 cents for every dollar that we don't dispute you spent.
 
Re: South Station Tower

even if they don't want to build anytime soon, if I were them I go before the BRA and ask for a big height increase cuz they'll probably get it right now with mumbles on the way out... provided they would want that, economically it makes sense anyway
 
Re: South Station Tower

Mike said:
The BBJ is reporting that Hines is considering switching from apartments to condos at South Station:

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/r...rs-considering-condos-over-apts.html?page=all
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That is probably the worst BBJ article I have ever read. The first sentence is completely inaccurate and this inaccuracy is actually contradicted later in the article. Copley Place reduced the condos and actually added 433 apartments instead. Why the hell is he saying they "added" condos to the mix? The big CP Tower housing type shift is supposed to be the big driving point of his article, but it makes no sense because the shift was opposite.
 
Re: South Station Tower

He also offers no evidence that the rental market has "reached a saturation point". It appears to me that the planned condo conversions/reversions are picking up because the condo market has finally rebounded, is attracting immediate buyers (i.e. so much of MPIII being under agreement), and inventory is still extremely low.
 
Re: South Station Tower

Hines said they were waiting for the market to improve, right? Or was that for offices?
 
Re: South Station Tower

datadyne007 said:
That is probably the worst BBJ article I have ever read. The first sentence is completely inaccurate and this inaccuracy is actually contradicted later in the article. Copley Place reduced the condos and actually added 433 apartments instead. Why the hell is he saying they "added" condos to the mix? The big CP Tower housing type shift is supposed to be the big driving point of his article, but it makes no sense because the shift was opposite.
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SO GLAD YOU CAUGHT THAT ALSO! I generally love reading Thomas Grillo's development articles, but this one was off the mark.
 
Re: South Station Tower

dshoost88 said:
SO GLAD YOU CAUGHT THAT ALSO! I generally love reading Thomas Grillo's development articles, but this one was off the mark.
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Good I'm glad I was right to be confused by that opener...
 
Re: South Station Tower

Suffolk 83 said:
even if they don't want to build anytime soon, if I were them I go before the BRA and ask for a big height increase cuz they'll probably get it right now with mumbles on the way out... provided they would want that, economically it makes sense anyway
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Height there is constrained by the FAA.
 
Re: South Station Tower

stellarfun said:
Height there is constrained by the FAA.
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Remember when this originally looked like a glassier/classier 1 Financial with a spire, which went up to 840'? Did the FAA originally force the height reduction, or was that just part of the natural progression of Boston proposals? (notwithstanding the few recent exceptions)
 
Re: South Station Tower

DZH22 said:
Remember when this originally looked like a glassier/classier 1 Financial with a spire, which went up to 840'? Did the FAA originally force the height reduction, or was that just part of the natural progression of Boston proposals? (notwithstanding the few recent exceptions)
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IIRC, the 'issue' was that above a certain height, the SST would be categorized as a hazard for a one engine out departure.
 
Re: South Station Tower

BBJ has some recent Mass DOT renderings of the 'Expanded South Station" some show other buildings but none shows any evidence for the South Station Tower

Oct 18, 2013, 5:05pm EDT
Look: More South Station expansion renderings
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http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/b...ion-expansion-renderings.html?s=image_gallery

a few excerpts:
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) today published a futuristic-looking view of a South Station interior in which the coffered ceiling of the historic Boston transportation hub has been replaced by high-arching glass panels. ...

The state is in the midst of a $43 million, construction-free preliminary planning phase...of an $850 million expansion of the transit hub..

The spokesman also stated MassDOT "fully intends to comply with (South Station's) historic designation."

looks more like the Jetsons than Spenser for Hire.

The Render Slides with captions and comments by the BBJ:

1) A view of what train platforms could look like in a planned expansion of Boston's South Station.
-- Amtrak Acela trains by the half dozen zoom under boomerang-shaped walkways that extend out over the tracks between the train terminal and the bus terminal down Atlantic Avenue.

2) A rendering of the inside of South Station that could be part of an $850 million expansion of the Boston transit hub.
-- appears to show the 114-year-old train terminal with its roof blown off, replaced by a glass canopy that stretches out to pedestrian walkways extending over the train platforms.

3) Another vision of South Station, seen from above, over Fort Point Channel. A new building sits where the U.S. Postal Service was, and a kind of steel canopy covers the station itself.
vision of the side of South Station that faces the Channel. This one is covered with what looks like a drug-eluting stent made by Boston Scientific.

4) A view of what South Station could look like on the side facing Fort Point Channel.
--- footbridges extend across Fort Point Channel from a wide brick pedestrian walkway where now postal trucks roll into the U.S. Postal Service sorting facility at the back of South Station

[General Comment by Mass DOT from another BBJ article]:

"That image represents a design concept, not a firm design, of an expanded station. It includes elements – lots of light, lots of space, vertical circulation, passenger information – that will be almost certainly be incorporated in a final design, but the image itself is not of a final design. The overall project is still in the very early stages."
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My comment -- so far what I've seen looks like lets make some drawings and "Throw them up on the wall and see which ones have less obscene graffiti on them by morning"

Nothing to see here folks carry on -- but it would be amazing even if part of one of those eventuated -- especially if it can be successfully married to the existing renovated South Station and some sort of entry to the South Station Tower

My guess is that to do any of the above successfully the Tower base would need to move to at least in part superimpose over the PO Building footprint
 
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Re: South Station Tower

According to this week's Boston Business Journal, Hines has been working on the plans: no hotel, less office, more residential - changed from rental to condo. They will submit plans to the BRA early 2014.
 
Re: South Station Tower

Disappointing; I would have thought a hotel would be a slam-dunk proposal - isn't there demand for that here? Or could he just not find funding?
 
Re: South Station Tower

Wait, I can answer my own question. When you have the BCEC proposing to open a 1,000-key hotel down the street (with accompanying public subsidies) then how could a private developer compete?

Right; he can't.
 
Re: South Station Tower

JohnAKeith said:
Wait, I can answer my own question. When you have the BCEC proposing to open a 1,000-key hotel down the street (with accompanying public subsidies) then how could a private developer compete?

Right; he can't.
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John -- He could -- consider the highest Hotel Suites at the Hub of the Hub

I'd put a 10 story hotel with about 100 rooms and a half dozen suites atop the tower -- towering over South Station with views out to wherever and then some -- Night time -- unparalleled views -- 5 star service -- lower down the same kitchens, etc., can support luxury condos and apartments with the same service

That structure would not be a competitor or even in the same market with anything built next to the BCEC

Here's the ad

Person leaves fancy abode in DC or NYC takes taxi to Union or Penn hops on First Class Acela -- steps off the train at South Station -- takes private elevator to Harbor Suites at the Hub Hotel -- and voila the view
 
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