Exchange South End

Members of an advisory group pressed The Abbey Group on the timing of road work required for its 1.6 million-square-foot Exchange South End life science development, including a connection to Frontage Road designed to minimize congestion on Albany Street.

The project would transform the former Boston Flower Exchange property at 540 Albany St. into a four-building office-lab complex.

“Let’s face it: this is the largest project in the history of the South End, so there are a lot of moving parts,” said Steve Fox, a member of the Boston Planning & Development Agency’s impact advisory group for Exchange South End. “I grow increasingly concerned about this continuing to linger as an issue. It’s been two years and I’m still hearing what I heard two years ago about progress that we’ve made on that access road.”

The project would generate 4,527 daily trips by private vehicles, according to a project impact report.

The Abbey Group has been in negotiations with the three abutters on real estate agreements needed to build the connector. Developers this week said they want the flexibility to begin two buildings before the connector is completed.

During a meeting Wednesday, Fox questioned whether the road project would go unfinished if The Abbey Group sold the property after completing the first two buildings. A spokeswoman for The Abbey Group later stated that the agreement would require the road project to be completed if another developer buys the property.

The project includes a pair of 6- and 12-story buildings in an initial phase totaling 657,700 square feet, and 15- and 23-story office-lab buildings containing a combined 941,725 square feet on the rear of the property closest to Frontage Road.

The BPDA approved the project in August 2018. In an approval memo, the agency said the developer would complete the connector “as soon as feasible” but if the road project is not completed prior to the first building’s occupancy, the developer will pay for additional shuttle bus or MBTA bus service to the Red and Orange lines and commuter rail. Approximately 2,300 daily transit trips would be generated by the project, according to the developers’ transportation report.

Final details of the transportation mitigation were deferred to the cooperation agreement now under review.

The connector road would extend East Canton Street through the former Flower Exchange property to Biosquare Drive and southbound Frontage Road. Negotiations with abutters Boston University, Boston Medical Center and Alan Jacobson Trusts on leases and easements needed for the connector continue, said William Conroy, senior transportation planner for the city of Boston. The final design requires approval from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.

Negotiations with Boston University, whose School of Medicine borders the site to the south, have been complicated by the school’s “particular sensitivity” to maintaining a campus-like environment, said David Epstein, chief operating officer of The Abbey Group.

“Most of the land is coming from our property, but we’re asking them to contribute land. It’s in their best interest to do so, but it’s also a contribution from them,” Epstein said.

The impact advisory committee – which resumed meeting this month after a two-year hiatus – is reviewing the cooperation agreement prior to its approval by the BPDA board of directors. The BPDA declined to provide a copy of the draft agreement.

Editor’s note: This report has been updated with additional information provided by The Abbey Group about the requirements for the road work in the cooperation agreement.