Developer’s new plan for garage site is well-received

July 22nd, 2011 by David J. Williams

Developer’s new plan for garage site is well-received

A Boston developer unveiled plans to turn the 4-acre Government Center Garage site into a seven-building complex of offices, residences, hotels and stores.

“We’re obviously recreating (the parcel) to make it a much better and pedestrian-friendly place,” HYM Investment Group managing director Tom O’Brien said yesterday in presenting details of the project to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. “We’re really excited about that.”

HYM, which has tried for years to redevelop the 45-year-old garage, last month announced plans to scale back an original $2.2 billion plan that ran into regulatory opposition.

The company previously wanted to build two skyscrapers — one 42 stories high and the other 52 stories — but the BRA and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino opposed that plan’s size and height.

To win them over, HYM removed the development’s original project leader and replaced him with O’Brien, a former BRA chief. O’Brien spent some 18 months revamping the project.

The revised plan released for the first time yesterday calls for preserving much of the existing garage but surrounding it with:

• eight- and 45-story office buildings with 1.2 million square feet of space;

• two hotels, one 28 stories and the other 22, with a total of 600 rooms;

• three residential buildings hosting 750 apartments and condos and ranging in height from 12 to 38 stories;

• 50,000 square feet of retail space.

O’Brien said the proposal will bring life back to downtown Boston’s Haymarket/Bullfinch Triangle area, a once-bustling neighborhood all but dismantled as part of 1960s “urban renewal” efforts.

“This area was once a huge hub of activity, and we think it can be again,” he said.

O’Brien said the first building, a 38-story residential tower, would be finished in four or five years and cost about $140 million.

Advisory board members and local residents appeared to endorse the scaled-down plan.

“It’s really a wonderful proposal,” board member Francine Gannon said. “I really commend you (and) I think you’re doing a good job.”

Added local resident Jim Bath: “I believe that this is a good project — as opposed to the other one, which was not suitable.”

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