This artist’s rendering depicts 1255 Boylston St. in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood, which will house the Guitar Center, one of the nation’s largest guitar retailers.
One of the nation’s largest sellers of guitars, percussion instruments, keyboards and recording equipment is opening a mega-store near Boston’s Fenway Park.
Guitar Center has leased 20,000 square feet of space on the first two floors of 1255 Boylston St., former home of the New England School of Optometry. The California-based music retailer operates more than 210 stores across the United States. Its inventory includes $4 Fender picks and a $10,000 Gibson guitar “inspired” by Slash, former lead guitarist of Guns N’ Roses. Bain Capital, a Boston-based private investment firm, bought the company last fall for $2.1 billion.
The guitar chain plans to move to the Fenway next spring from smaller space it occupies on Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University. Samuels & Assoc. owns the 3-story building on Boylston that is shrouded in a white tarp as contractors install display windows and replace the facade with brick.
“Our building is located near the Berklee College of Music campus and close to Lansdowne Street where the new House of Blues is planned,” said Peter Sougarides, vice president of development at Samuels & Assoc. “That end of Boylston has a music theme and it’s exiting to have a music store as an anchor.”
The gritty stretch of Boylston between Ipswich Street and Brookline Avenue is in the midst of a rebirth. Last week, Banker & Tradesman reported that Jerry Remy, the colorful analyst for New England Sports Network, plans to open a 280-seat restaurant with outdoor seating for another 50 patrons at 1265 Boylston (see story above). The “Rem Dawg” is planning to spend $3.7 million to renovate the former WBCN building with giant glass windows and doors that open onto the street.
And that’s not all. CVS recently opened a store at 1249 Boylston St. at the former Staples location. Last week, GlobeSt.com, a commercial real estate Web site, reported that Samuels bought the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. store at 1345 Boylston St. for $9.9 million.
‘A Time Warp’
Sougarides declined to provide details of the Boston-based company’s plans for the Goodyear site. “Long-term, we are obviously very invested in the neighborhood and we will take our time to determine the next step for that property,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything beyond that.”
But William Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association, said while Sougarides has not provided the neighborhood with plans for the Goodyear location, the district’s zoning requires a combination of ground-floor retail, housing and office space.
“This section of the Fenway has been stuck in a time warp from the 1960s,” he said. “For years, the area was dominated by drive-through restaurants, parking lots and five gas stations within three-tenths of a mile in a neighborhood that has the lowest car ownership rate in Boston. But thanks to new zoning, that’s changing. ”
Today, zoning regulations championed by activists in cooperation with the Boston Redevelopment Authority seek a vibrant mix of uses that will bring more housing and street-level retail to the neighborhood. McDonald’s, Burger King and gas stations still stand out as eyesores, say residents, but in 10 years those properties could be transformed.
“The goal is to turn Boylston into a true Main Street for the neighborhood with active streetscapes,” Richardson said. “We successfully argued against a heavy dose of offices because those buildings bring more traffic to already-clogged streets.”
Samuels’ company has been almost single-handedly responsible for transforming that section of the city in the shadow of Fenway Park. Some suggest that Steven Samuels has overpaid for the properties along Boylston. Samuels declined repeated requests for an interview.
Across the street from Goodyear at 1330 Boylston St., Samuels’ mixed-use development is nearly complete. Built on a parking lot and the site of the Baseball Tavern, the $100 million project will feature 215 apartments and condominiums and 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. In addition, it will be the new home to Fenway Community Health, a neighborhood anchor that has served the community since the 1970s.
The 1 million-square-foot project comes on the heels of Samuels’ and Boylston Properties’ nearby Trilogy development. The $225 million mixed-use project offers 576 rental units in 12-, 15- and 17-story towers, along with 43,000 square feet of retail including West Elm, Burton’s Grill, Citibank, Starbucks, and Emack & Bolio’s. There’s also underground parking.
Samuels and Boylston Properties reportedly have an option to develop Fenway’s run-down gateway site at Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue where a D’Angelo’s sandwich shop and a liquor store are located.
“There’s an opportunity to create what could be a strong landmark building that would be the gateway to the Fenway,” said Richardson. “I love the changes and love that I can go to a Starbucks within walking distance of my house.”
