Community activists and hotel developers agree on one thing: the Fenway/Kenmore Square area of Boston needs more hotel rooms. 

New mixed-use residential, office and retail developments have been constructed over the years as Fenway Park expanded its entertainment offerings beyond Red Sox games to include concerts and sporting events of all varieties. 

There’s another reason why many would like to see more hotel rooms: the “Airbnb crisis” has transformed hundreds of housing units in the Fenway-Kenmore Square area into short-term rentals for tourists, corporate travelers and families wanting to stay close to loved ones attending a nearby college or getting care at the Longwood Medical District. The net result is a reduction in the number of available housing units for full-time residents.  

“In general, we like the idea of more hotels,” said Richard Giordano, director of policy and planning at the Fenway Community Development Corporation. “The neighborhood needs them. The success of Airbnb shows that more people are coming here and need places to stay.” 

Enter Mark Development, which has proposed a 382-room, 24-story hotel to replace a single-story Citizens Bank branch in Kenmore Square. 

“This area is one of the most underserved hotel markets in Boston,” said Damien Chaviano, a Mark Development principal. 

Still, as much as people may agree in concept about the need for new hotel rooms, there’s little consensus on what type of hotels are needed – and where and how big they should be in the Fenway and Kenmore Square. 

Currently, there are three hotel proposals under city review in the neighborhood: Mark Development’s proposed 382-room, 24-stories project on Commonwealth Avenue; Buckminster Annex’s proposed 295-rooms,19-stories project across the street on the 600 block of Beacon Street, behind its existing Buckminster Hotel; and South Carolina-based OTO Development’s proposed 184-room, eight-stories hotel project at 1241 Boylston St., on the site of what’s now a Shell gas station. 

The three projects are currently going through the city’s sometimes tortuous approval process – and all three have attracted their share of supporters and detractors. 

The Mark and Buckminster hotel plans are separate projects, but they’re being jointly reviewed under the city’s “planned development agreement” (PDA) process that, if approved, would grant them a special zoning overlay to build on properties. However, PDA projects also require developers to provide “meaningful public benefits” in exchange for the zoning approvals. 

Jackson Slomiak, a principal at Boston’s BluRidge Management, which is representing the owner of the Buckminster Annex project, says the new hotel would be effectively located in back of the current 132-room Buckminster Hotel. That project’s main public benefit would be a new “European style” pedestrian walkway – complete with trees, benches and ground-floor retail – connecting Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue, near the Mass Pike overpass linking Kenmore to the Fenway Park area. 

The new hotel would be a higher-end format than the current Buckminster Hotel, serving a market need for a more upscale hotel rooms in area, Slomiak said. 

“We’re feeding off the energy of the area,” said Slomiak, saying Kenmore Square is increasingly becoming more of a “tourist attraction” for global travelers. 

How Much Height Is Right? 

FCDC’s Giordano said there are some objections to the Buckminster’s density and the potential traffic it might generate, but, in general, it’s “viewed more favorably than” the Mark Development project.  

The main complaint about the 560 Commonwealth plan is its size and the fact it blocks the views of residents at a nearby Kenmore Tower co-op building, Giordano said. 

Mark’s Chaviano acknowledges there’s a “very delicate situation” when it comes to reaching a consensus on the plan. But he expressed confidence that a compromise can be reached, adding Mark Development plans to unveil its official PDA plans – with proposed public benefits – within the next 60 days. 

At 1241 Boylston St. in the heart of the Fenway area, the proposed hotel at the current site of a Shell gas station could be a “potentially very good” project for the area, said Matthew Brooks, vice president at the Fenway Civic Association. But he added that some abutters object to the proximity of the hotel to sidewalks and other nearby structures. 

“It’s all about setbacks,” he said. “Many feel it’s too close to Boylston Street and other buildings.” 

Executives at OTO Development could not be reached for comment. 

Despite the concern over the density of the project, Brooks, like others in the neighborhood, said area residents are most definitely sick of all the short-term rental properties sprouting up in the area. 

“It shows the need for more hotel rooms,” said Brooks.