Fenway project’s pitch: Towers will help shape ‘urban village’
A plan to transform the last parking lot on a stretch of Boylston Street behind Fenway Park [map] into a massive apartment and office tower complex was filed yesterday with the city and seems to have neighborhood support.
“Over the last 15 years, we have had a keen interest and involvement in the growing vitality of the Fenway area,” said David Epstein, Abbey Group president and the project’s developer. “Through our work at Landmark Center and Landmark Square, we have developed close working relationships with neighborhood groups and support the efforts to make the Fenway a robust ‘urban village.’ This project, 1282 Boylston, will … bring new housing stock, additional retail choices and flexible office spaces to the neighborhood.”
The section of Boylston between Ipswich Street and Brookline Avenue has already undergone some of the city’s most significant redevelopment over the last decade — including Steve Samuels’ $100 million project featuring 215 apartments and the new home of the Fenway Health Center at 1330 Boylston St. and his $225 million Trilogy, a complex with 576 rental units and ground-floor shops.
Now, the Abbey Group wants to build two new towers — at 178 feet and 139 feet — with 210 apartments, 99,000 square feet of office space, 15,000 square feet for retail shops and 295 underground parking spaces.
William Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association, said the proposal is an encouraging step in the process of replacing single-story, one-floor buildings with the kind of mixed-use development that encourages foot traffic.
“The idea is more housing and more people on the street to help create a better variety of business and make the businesses already there more successful,” Richardson said.
The project would be built on the former McDonald’s site at Jersey Street. In 2009, the Red Sox [team stats] swapped the McDonald’s property it owned for the Abbey Group’s parking lot on Van Ness Street.
In addition to the Abbey Group project, Samuels recently proposed replacing the former Goodyear Tire store and two adjacent properties with 150 apartments, retail shops and offices. His company is also in a joint venture to redevelop the nearby Howard Johnson hotel.
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Tags: Fenway, Fenway Projects
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