Photos courtesy of the Boston Planning Department
Less than six months after proposing a 113-room luxury hotel and restaurant on the Boston waterfront, the new owners of the Atlantic Avenue property are looking to sell.
In 2024, Luxembourg-based JAJ Investment Group paid $30 million for 400 Atlantic Ave., a nearly 100,000 square-foot vacant brick-and-beam office building formerly leased to law firm Goulston & Storrs.
CBRE now is listing the property as being suitable for acquisition by hotel, residential and office developers.
A development proposal submitted to the Boston Planning Department in January envisioned 113 hotel rooms and conversion of the ground floor into a hotel lobby and 7,000 square-foot restaurant and bar. Plans included a new stairway connecting to the Boston Harborwalk.
Developers hoped to begin construction in December, according to a presentation made in March to the Boston Planning Department. The project is still listed as “under review” on the department’s website.
JAJ is an affiliate of the French financial executive Jacques Chahine’s personal investment firm. Chahine sought to replicate previous projects in Lisbon, Portugal and Paris converting a historic property and office building into luxury hotels, according to a Boston Business Journal report in January. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CBRE is listing the property as a “generational value-add opportunity.”
“[T]his landmark asset offers a rare combination of historic character, waterfront positioning, and near-term optionality that is virtually unmatched in the downtown Boston market. 400 Atlantic Ave. is an iconic ‘jewel-box’ asset that stands apart from the glass-and-steel towers that define much of downtown Boston’s skyline,” the CBRE listing states.
Located on a 0.55-acre parcel, the 6-story building was completed in 1890 and housed a variety of tenants from engravers to printers before conversion into offices during the 1980s. Goulston & Storrs relocated in 2023 to One Post Office Square.
Unlike most properties located next to tidelands in Massachusetts, 400 Atlantic Ave. is not subject to Chapter 91, the state law that limits waterfront development while preserving public access. In 1981, a special act of the Legislature removed 400 Atlantic Ave. from Chapter 91 regulations, according to a presentation by developers to the impact advisory group. The law required owners to maintain a 15-foot walkway on the harbor side of the property, however.
Developers’ plans for a private outdoor patio received pushback from Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation this year.
In a March 12 public comment letter, CLF Associate Attorney Breanne Frank requested that developers include seating for the general public on a rear deck along with restaurant seating.
“Even if the deck is open to the general public, visitors are likely to perceive a space predominantly used by restaurant patrons as being available only to paid customers. And, as with lobby space, shared public and restaurant space risks untrained restaurant staff turning away members of the public or pressuring them into making a purchase to enjoy the public space,” Frank wrote.
