NEW DEVELOPMENT: 32-story complex planned for the Back Bay State picks developers for multiuse project over Pike

A Boston development team has won the right to build a towering $360 million hotel, residential, and retail complex on state-owned property in the city’s Back Bay, adding to a surge of ambitious building proposals in the area.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation on Monday selected Samuels & Associates and Weiner Ventures to construct a 400-foot-high complex — about 32 stories — near the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street.

The project, which still needs final approval from Boston regulators, would straddle the Massachusetts Turnpike and bring modern, glass buildings to what is now an empty, windswept corner of the Back Bay. The development would include two buildings with 230 residences, 270 hotel rooms, and 50,000 square feet of retail space.

“This project will make the area more walkable and active for residents, businesses, and visitors alike,” said Adam Weiner, a partner with Weiner Ventures. “It will reenergize the whole neighborhood.”

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View the proposed development (PDF)

The selection of Weiner and Samuels is the first step in a long, uncertain process to get the project built. In recent years, several developers have proposed construction of massive developments in air rights over the turnpike, only to see them fail or get delayed due to financial problems, community opposition, or permitting troubles.

Executives with both firms said they are optimistic because most of the project would be built around the turnpike, not directly over it, making it cheaper and less complicated to build than other air-rights developments.

Massachusetts transportation officials, who have been burned by prior air-rights projects, such as the failed Columbus Center, also struck a positive tone Monday.

“This will be the first air-rights project in over 30 years and we think it will be transformative,” said Dana Levenson, chief financial officer for the transportation department. “We’re very

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS: Major complex planned for Back Bay

Developer Steve Samuels has won the right to build a towering $360 million hotel, residential and retail complex at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street, adding to rapid redevelopment of the area, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation on Monday formally selected Samuels and his partner, Weiner Ventures, to build a 400-foot-high complex -- about 32 stories -- that will include a hotel, residences and stores.

The buildings will occupy two air rights parcels over and along the Massachusetts Turnpike in the Back Bay. On one plot known as Parcel 15, Samuels will develop a high-rise hotel and residences, with a separate building to contain stores along Boylston Street

The Samuels team will also build a mid-rise residential building on a nearby parcel of land, as well as another retail complex that will cover the Turnpike along Massachusetts Avenue. Overall, the development will include 230 residences, 270 hotel rooms and 50,000 square feet of retail space.

Samuels, who in recent years has developed much of Boylston Street in the adjacent Fenway neighborhood, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Massachusetts transportation officials have negotiated a tentative lease with Samuels and Weiner Ventures that will give the state more than $18 million in rent and other payments over 99 years, according to the person with knowledge of the deal but who is not authorized to speak publicy about it.

Samuels was selected over several other developers who also bid for the right to to redevelop the property. They included the Chiofaro Co., Trinity Financial and Carpenter & Co., which was recently designated to build a hotel and residential complex on the nearby Christian Science property.

State and city officials have been weighing competing proposals for the property for several

BOSTON HOUSING NEWS: Residential tower pitched for the Fenway

For years, the gritty retail building at Brookline Avenue and Boylston Street has remained a bystander in the Fenway’s revitalization.

Not anymore.

Developer Samuels & Associates proposes building a 22-story residential tower on the property that would contain 320 residences and a two-story retail base with several new shops and restaurants.

The project, to be called The Point, would result in a modern masonry and glass tower on the triangular lot currently occupied by a D’Angelo sub shop and other businesses. Samuels filed plans for the project Friday with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, kicking off a monthslong review.


The building’s construction would continue a decadelong remake of the Fenway portion of Boylston Street, where Samuels and other developers have already built hundreds of new residences, restaurants, and retail shops.

“This counts as among the most exciting of our projects in the Fenway,” said Peter Sougarides, a Samuels & Associates executive. “In the almost 15 years that we have been working with the neighborhood, this property has always been thought of as a gateway into the Fenway and a key element of the redevelopment of Boylston Street.”

Samuels is currently building the nearby Fenway Triangle project at the corner of Boylston and Kilmarnock streets. That $325 million project will result in new offices, 172 residences, a Target, and several smaller retail shops and restaurants.

Designed by the architecture firm Arquitectonica, The Point would be the most visually striking of the buildings Samuels has developed so far. A rendering shows a wedge-shaped glass tower rising above a two-story base with restaurants and stores.

The windows on its north face would be layered so it looks like a series of glass doors are sliding into one another. In its filing with the city, Samuels said the building is meant to shake up

Architecture: Small-house philosophy attracts big interest

For a man who thinks small, Ross Chapin is in big demand.

The American architect and author from Whidbey Island, Wash., has been busy fielding calls from around the world, from Japan and Australia to Spain, England and right next door in Canada.

Everyone wants to know more about the small-house philosophy he’s helped to pioneer across the border and what he calls “pocket neighbourhoods,” an old-fashioned community-planning concept repurposed (and newly coined) to fit with modern urban demands.

“Perhaps this is in response to ‘big,’ ” Chapin said of the global interest in small housing in an interview earlier this week in Vancouver, where he delivered a talk on the small-housing trend at the University of B.C.

“I think there are people all around the world who are trying to find approaches that are more sustainable, more humane, more livable. That’s a challenge for all of us in a finite world.”

Livability and sustainability — not to mention affordability — are key words in the Vancouver region right now as cities struggle to balance a need to accommodate an estimated one million more residents over the next 25 years with a desire to preserve green space and limit urban sprawl.

That discussion has encouraged a range of new housing options to spring up in recent years in what had been predominantly single-family home neighbourhoods from the west side of

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS: Panera opens nonprofit Hub cafe

Customers pay what they can afford here

Jonathan Diotalevi wasn’t sure what to expect when he walked into Panera Cares near Government Center on Wednesday, the restaurant’s first day of business. The recent UMass Dartmouth graduate said he doesn’t have a lot of cash and was just looking for a cheap lunch.

A smiling employee greeted Diotalevi at the door, he waited in line, ­ordered a tomato- mozzarella panini, and then asked the clerk, “So, can I, like, just give you two bucks?”

Yes, he could. And he did, dropping the money into a nearby donation bin.

The restaurant at 3 Center Plaza may have been as busy at lunch time as any of the chains’s other cafes nationwide — more than 1,600 of them — but there’s a reason cochief executive Ron Shaich calls this one “a test of human nature.”

The nonprofit outpost of Panera Bread Co. doesn’t have any cash registers, or set prices. Instead, it depends on donations from customers who pay whatever they can afford. The Government Center shop is the fifth of its kind for the St. Louis-based company — the first in this region.

“I think it’s awesome because it’s obviously beneficial for people who are a little less fortunate,” said customer Yanick Belzile of Lowell. “We can ­afford to, so we put in a little bit extra. If we can help someone else who can’t pay for a meal, why not?”

Belzile said he donated about $3 more than the suggested donation, or regular retail price,

BOSTON NEIGHBORHOODS: New businesses, stores alter Financial District

Tech, communications, health care companies — and bars and cafes — are changing the vibe

Working in Boston’s Financial­ District used to mean something very specific. You wore a suit and carried a briefcase. You worked for a legal or financial services company. And when your work day ended, you went home — not out to eat at a nearby bar or restaurant.

But now those rules are changing.

A number of technology, communications, and health care companies are moving into the Financial District, shaking up the traditional mix of employees and business interests, while new restaurants, bars, and stores have opened, offering more reasons to linger after work.

“It’s setting a completely different tone,” said Bill Barrack, a managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate services company with offices in the heart of the district. “We’re getting a lot of companies that wouldn’t even have considered the Financial District in the past.”


Financial companies still occupy large swaths of real estate in the area. But new or incoming tenants include the Internet payment giant PayPal, the engineering business Technip, and Brightcove Inc., a digital media company that moved into 80,000 square feet at the base of the Atlantic Wharf tower. In 2012, those and other companies made commitments to fill nearly 700,000 square feet in the Financial District, helping it to recover rapidly from the recession.

In the last year, the district’s vacancy rate has fallen to 11.9 percent, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. That marks a 4 percentage point decline during the year and the lowest vacancy level since early 2010.

Much of the activity is spilling over from hot markets such as the adjacent Innovation District and the Back Bay, where an influx of new companies has left little top-rated space available, causing those shopping for real estate to look harder at the Financial District.

The companies moving in are creating a more diverse business environment, with many more

BOSTON HOUSING NEWS: Hopes are high for new development in Roslindale

The hulking power substation stands vacant at the edge of Roslindale Square, a bleak remnant of the network that powered trolley cars in Boston more than a century ago.

The Roslindale substation was one of several in Boston neighborhoods that supported the old streetcar network.

Out of use for 40 years, the brick building has slowly deteriorated into an eyesore that belies both its proud history and prime spot overlooking an active business district.

Now, after years of false starts, the city-owned substation is poised for a dramatic transformation: a mixed-use complex with dozens of apartments, restaurants, and a produce market.

The project, led by local nonprofits and a Rhode Island developer, involves restoring the original details of the 1911 building, designed by the prominent Boston architect Robert S. Peabody, and constructing about 40 apartments on an adjacent lot.


The substation itself will house a restaurant, small cafe, and the produce market. Pending city approvals, the developers hope to begin construction next fall.

The project would refurbish the building’s massive arched
windows, many of which were bricked over years ago.
 About 40 apartments would be built on an adjacent lot.

“This is going to completely change the way people see that corner,” said Kathy Kottaridis, executive director of Historic Boston Inc., one of the nonprofits leading the project. “It’s an exciting economic opportunity for this building.”

The project would refurbish the building’s massive arched windows, many of which were bricked over years ago. About 40 apartments would be built on an adjacent lot.

The project will refurbish the building’s massive arched windows — many of which were bricked over years ago — and create a stronger visual connection to Adams Park at the center of Roslindale Village. Mayor Thomas M. Menino, a longtime supporter of the substation’s revitalization, said the effort will save a key piece of Boston’s history and bring the dilapidated building “back to active life in the community.”

The substation was one of several in Boston neighborhoods that supported the old streetcar network that led to a period of rapid growth in the city.

Historic Boston is working on the project with Roslindale Village Main Street. Those groups

NEIGHBORHOODS: Seaport District gets another restaurant invasion

Restaurants with celebrity chefs and gourmet grocer quickly set up shop in the neighborhood

Barth Anderson was among an early wave of new food entrepreneurs in the Seaport District when he opened Barrington Coffee Roasting Company last year, gambling that as the economy slowly improved the nascent neighborhood would eventually turn into a full-blown community with an active social scene.

But even he’s surprised at the speed with which the Seaport is filling in. In the next few months, another wave of restaurants and entertainment options is scheduled to open in the Seaport District, seemingly racing the developers who are rushing to fill in the area’s empty lots with office buildings and residential towers.

“In an otherwise relatively tame world of development, this area feels like it’s on fire,” Anderson said. “It’s forging ahead against all norms.”

The latest influx involves some of the biggest names in Boston’s food scene, from celebrity chef Ming Tsai to veteran restaurateurs Seth Greenberg and Tom Kershaw, with options that range from neighborhood tavern, to French bistro, to gourmet grocer.

“I’m very bullish on the whole area,” said Greenberg, the owner of Mistral who plans to open a French eatery in a former textile factory on Melcher Street next spring. “It has huge

BOSTON REAL ESTATE NEWS: New development coming soon to Pier 4

Construction will start next month on mixed-use complex that will displace iconic Boston restaurant

Through years of redevelopment around it, Anthony’s Pier 4 has remained largely the same, serving up New England seafood classics in a brick restaurant at the edge of Boston Harbor.

But next month the changes that are rapidly redefining the Seaport District will finally arrive at Anthony’s doorstep.

Construction will begin on a massive complex that will eventually displace Anthony’s from its perch at the edge of the pier, and could mark the last chapter of the venerable restaurant. The project includes construction of three glass-walled buildings with hundreds of new residences, a hotel, and multiple restaurants.

Most important, a 1-acre waterfront park will be built where Anthony’s now stands. And for now the Athanas family, which owns the restaurant, has not settled on a new location — whether in one of the new buildings going up on Pier 4, or elsewhere in the Seaport.

“They’re still weighing their options,” said Douglass Karp, an executive with New England Development, the property’s master developer. “We think the world of those guys, and we’re committed to continuing to work with them.”

Anthony’s owners did not return a phone call Tuesday for comment.

The restaurant will remain open while the first new building at Pier 4 goes up, a 21-story apartment and retail tower along Northern Avenue. But it will have to close its current location when construction starts on the park, which is not likely for several years.

Ironically, the Pier 4 redevelopment will in many ways realize the original vision for the property by the restaurant’s founder, Anthony Athanas.

In the 1980s, when most of the Seaport was largely parking lots and empty industrial land, Athanas pressed to build a mixed-use development that would transform the land between Pier 4 and Fort Point Channel into “the next jewel in Boston’s crown.”

But Athanas lost control of much of the property in a legal battle with his former development partner, the Pritzker family of Chicago, and in the late 1990s hesold the development rights to Pier 4 itself to New England Development. Athanas died in 2005 at the age of 93. His family continues to operate the restaurant.

The plan by New England Development will dramatically change Pier 4, filling its half-empty

CITY LIVING: Why You Pay Extra to Live in the City

Is it more affordable to live in a city, where you can often walk to stores, work, and public transportation but pay more for housing, or outside the city, where you might need to rely more on cars? For many people, city living often seems to be the pricier choice.

Patricia Bolgiano, who's in her early fifties and a production coordinator near Baltimore, says she has saved money--and improved her quality of life--since moving outside the city itself. She says her city tax rates were higher, food cost more, and homeowners and car insurance payments cost more.
Since she moved outside the city, she feels safer and farther away from violence, as well. She also says she pays less for gas--along with insurance, taxes, and food. "Yes, living in the city is fun and convenient, but there are costs and trade-offs," she says. She presumably pays less for her Internet connection, too, since she now uses a dial-up connection.

Research by the Urban Land Institute's Terwilliger Center for Housing finds that in many urban areas, including Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Boston, working families often struggle to find affordable housing. Indeed, the price of housing often gets the most attention when it comes to measuring the cost of city living. Rent and housing prices tend to be significantly higher in urban locations. But city dwellers face other extra costs, too. Here are seven less-obvious costs of city living:

Entertainment: When you live close to the movie theaters and live entertainment such as plays and concerts, it's more tempting to pay to see them. In some cases, you can access the performing arts for free, but many city events require paid tickets.

Clothes: People who live in cities often feel more pressure to stay stylish. That means spending more on clothes, as well as shoes, which can get worn down more quickly with all of the city walking and public transportation use.

Schools and daycare: This one only applies to families with children, but paying for child care is often much more expensive in urban areas than suburban and rural ones. Families who choose to send their children to private school because they don't like their urban school districts also face expensive tuitions.

Food: In addition to the fact that produce and other fresh food can cost more at urban grocery stores, there are also more temptations for lots of daily food expenditures, from coffee to take-out to midday snacks. When you pass five cafes on your way to work, in can be hard to keep walking without stopping in for a treat.

Exercise: This cost can go both ways, because suburban and rural dwellers might spend so