As a founding member of the Prudential Center Project Advisory Committee, Marianne Abrams has long been familiar with 111 Huntington Ave., the 36-story Back Bay office tower originally conceived in the 1980s as a major addition to the landmark mixed-use complex. Despite that, Abrams said it was only this month when she happened by the half-finished behemoth that she could grasp the project’s ultimate impact on Huntington Avenue.
“You can finally see it,” the recently retired head of the Back Bay Association recounted last week. “It really comes right out to the street.”
The Prudential Center’s new owners, Boston Properties, will fete the topping off of 111 Huntington Ave. this Wednesday with a special ceremony. In some regards, however, the event will showcase more than just the building itself, but rather an entire new face for Huntington Avenue. Although it is one of the city’s longer and busier thoroughfares, stretching almost into Brookline, the street’s commercial development has always lagged behind others in the Back Bay, most notably Newbury and Boylston streets on the other side of the Prudential Center.
“To me, the really major change is that the Prudential Center always turned its back to the South End,” said Abrams, a resident of that neighborhood. The new tower “is really knitting it all together.”
“It’s going to be terrific for Huntington Ave.,” agreed Greater Boston Real Estate Board President Ronald M. Druker, who owns the Colonnade Hotel across the street from the 930,000-square-foot building. “I think it’s going to help everyone down there.”
With a new MBTA subway station to be grafted alongside 111 Huntington Ave., Abrams and others said they believe the redeveloped Prudential Center will go a long way toward invigorating the streetscape. Sporting such major anchor tenants as the Palmer & Dodge law firm and Bain Capital, the office building will bring thousands of new workers into the Back Bay district, with Druker predicting that the added mass will help both restaurants and retail uses along Huntington Avenue.
Perhaps more important is the wave of new residential development occurring in the area. Following up on the vast success of the 104-unit Trinity Place luxury condominiums at One Huntington Ave., Boston Properties began construction this year of the Belvedere, an 11-story, 65-unit residential building that will also front Huntington Ave. Druker himself plans to break ground later this year or in early 2001 on the Residences at the Colonnade, a 99-unit luxury apartment building to be integrated with the hotel. Rents for the project, which was delayed for years by a now-resolved abutter dispute, will run as high as $12,000 per month, Druker said.
“It is becoming a real residential neighborhood, and that’s great,” said Druker, who maintains that the influx of new people will help bolster the Hub’s image as a so-called 24-hour city. The Belvedere, which will feature two floors of retail space, is slated for a completion late next year, with an opening expected to be very close to that of 111 Huntington Ave. Houston-based InterCapital Partners has been retained to develop the condominiums.
‘More Life’
To help further improve Huntington Avenue, Druker and Boston Properties are joining forces with the city to make infrastructure upgrades to the eastern end of Huntington Avenue. Druker said there will be new sidewalks and increased planters, while his firm and Boston Properties will install new Boston Acorn lights along their sides of the street.
“When it’s all done, I think it will be pretty nice,” said Abrams. “You will definitely get much more life over there.”
A bit farther down toward Massachusetts Avenue, the Christian Science Church is doing its part with the planned construction of a $50 million research library, while the Museum of Fine Arts is also in the midst of a major expansion. Several local universities are beefing up their presence along Huntington Avenue as well, with recent projects either underway or completed for the Wentworth Institute of Technology and Northeastern University. In addition, the Fenway Community Development Corp. is proposing an 82-unit senior housing development near the corner of Huntington and Massachusetts Avenues.
Calls to Boston Properties were not returned before Banker & Tradesman’s press deadline, but the topping-off ceremony does promise to be more extensive than what one typically sees at such events. A bevy of political leaders and real estate professionals are expected to be on hand, as well as several representatives of 111 Huntington Ave.’s new tenants. Designed by Childs Bertman Tseckares/CBT Architects, the office tower is being marketed by Insignia/ESG.
Interestingly, CBT also designed the last new building on Huntington Ave., the glitzy 116 Huntington Ave. located next to Copley Place. Although the copper-shaded, 14-story building has received architectural renown since opening in 1990, there was none of the anticipation seen with the latest project. The disinterest likely had to do as much with timing as location, however, given that JMB Urban opened 116 Huntington Ave. amidst one of the region’s worst real estate slumps ever. But while the project failed to garner tenant interest, and has since been sold at a discount twice to two users, many say that the critical mass of the new construction may eventually benefit 116 Huntington Ave. as much as any property.
