This Mandarin Oriental hotel, scheduled to open in 2008, is under construction on Boston’s Boylston Street. The once-neglected city boulevard is undergoing a transformation that could make it comparable to the Hub’s Newbury Street.
A street fight has broken out in Boston’s Back Bay: a battle of the elite streets.
On one side is Newbury Street. With its elegant 19th-century brownstones, chic boutiques and restaurants, it long has been one of the region’s most popular destinations.
One block over is Boylston Street, a once-neglected city boulevard that some say is fast becoming trendy.
“Boylston Street is in the midst of a transformation,” said Bradley McGill, a broker at Jones Lang LaSalle, the leasing agent for One Exeter Plaza, the renovated 211,000-square-foot first-class office building that will debut next month as part of Boylston Street’s renaissance. “They’re both great streets, but now Boylston has risen.”
Improvements to the 15-story hotel-style office building are the latest in a series of changes for Boylston Street. The rejuvenation commenced in 2003 when Mayor Thomas M. Menino promised a $3.6 million public-private partnership with the Back Bay Association in an effort to establish Boylston Street as one of Boston’s “grand boulevards.”
Since then, a handful of new developments have been approved, including the Mandarin Oriental hotel scheduled to open in 2008 next to Lord & Taylor. The $230 million project will add 168 guestrooms and suites and the property will be a component of a premier mixed-use complex. The project’s developer is CWB Boylston, a Boston-based real estate company. CWB is a partnership comprising Julian Cohen, Stephen Weiner and hotelier Robin Brown.
Construction is expected to begin shortly on Apple’s flagship store that will occupy 21,350 square feet across from the Prudential Center. Lord & Taylor recently was outfitted with a new glass entrance. And last summer, the redeveloped New England Life building emerged as The Newbry with a $180 million facelift that launched with Filene’s Basement, Guess, Boston Sports Club, Borders and Citibank.
Since 2005, New York-based Ruben Cos. and tenants have spent nearly $4 million to improve the One Exeter Plaza building at the corner of Boylston and Exeter streets. The office building that features Morton’s Steakhouse on the lower level has been redesigned to allow the lobby lighting to spill out onto the street, filling that block with light after dark.
‘Incredible Energy’
When it comes to office space, Boylston Street may be winning with higher rents. Average asking rents on Boylston are in the mid-$40s and up per square foot, according to brokers. One Exeter is asking $48 per square foot, but it is unclear if tenants are willing to pay it – about 40,000 square feet is available. On Newbury Street, per-square-foot rents rage from the low $30s to low $40s.
Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, a trade group that represents merchants, said the two streets are completely different.
“There’s an incredible amount of energy on Boylston Street,” she said. “But the top designers want to be on Newbury Street. Valentino is not saying they want to move to Boylston Street. Fashion couture will always go to Newbury.”
Boylston, however, has enjoyed a major turnaround since the Menino administration’s Boylston Improvement Plan has spruced up the street. Gone, Mainzer-Cohen said, are the vacant storefronts, mismatched streetlights and litter.
The first phase of the city’s improvements included the installation of 85 new historic double-acorn streetlights, planting of 100 new trees, treatment of existing trees and removal of dead trees. In addition, other installations feature new medians and plantings, hanging flower baskets for each light pole, seasonal greens for winter and so-called street furniture such as trash receptacles and banners on light poles
Merchants applauded the city’s improvement initiative because they said it incorporates annual maintenance costs so trees and plantings will be maintained and sidewalks cleaned regularly. Project Place, a private nonprofit organization that offers job training services to homeless individuals, is helping to keep the area clean.
The Boylston Street Improvement Plan is a joint effort between the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Boston Parks & Recreation Department, the Boston Public Works Department and the Boston Transportation Department in conjunction with the business and property owners along Boylston Street. Private companies that have contributed to the improvement plan include Boston Properties, Pru Pac, The Druker Co., Beacon Capital Partners, Saunders Hotel Group, CWB Boylston LLC, the Four Seasons hotel and Avalon Bay Co.
Despite the gains, Sam Hawkey, a broker at The Dartmouth Co. who is listing two Newbury Street vacancies, said Boylston is no match rival for Newbury Street.
“I don’t think Boylston will ever carry the cachet of Newbury Street,” he said. “The Mandarin will be awesome, but Boylston will always have Wendy’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and other fast-food establishments.”
If you start at Massachusetts Avenue and walk east, there are eight blocks on Newbury that is nothing but retail, commercial space and pedestrians, Hawkey said. But on Boylston Street, the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center consumes an entire block, as does Copley Square, he said. “There’s just no comparison,” he added.
Mainzer-Cohen acknowledged that the first block of Boylston between Arlington and Berkeley streets has some problems. The former Shreve, Crump & Low is vacant. The MBTA is building a new handicapped-accessible entrance to its station near the Arlington Street Church, which is set to be completed in 2008.
“Those two spots are no good,” she said. “But the Rattlesnake Bar & Grill, the Parrish Cafe, Starbucks and Au Bon Pain are all very popular,” she said. “Once the T is fixed and Shreve’s future is decided, those will be great improvements. Perhaps Boylston is not rivaling Newbury, but it’s growing in success.”
