The team leading the redevelopment efforts at the Boston Herald property in Boston’s South End neighborhood has notified City Hall of its intent to kick start plans for a mixed-use project on the 6.22-acre site.
Preliminary plans from Newton-based National Development, the real estate firm jointly developing the site with Herald owner Pat Purcell, call for 262 residential rental units, 63,748 square feet of retail space and 236 underground parking spaces.
"The project proponent intends to undertake an adaptive reuse of the existing building to create a vibrant mixed-use development … in what is presently an under-utilized industrial site," according to a letter from Marc LaCasse, an attorney for the McCormack Firm that represents the owner. "The site will be transformed from an inaccessible fenced-in city block to a vibrant 18-hour mixed-use complex."
Ted Tye, managing partner for National Development, said the company would like to have shovels in the ground in the first quarter of next year. Construction should take about 18 months, and if all goes to plan, the development could open by late-2013.
The developer will file a Project Notification Form with the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) later this month, according to LaCasse’s letter. That submission will trigger the BRA’s Article 80 process for Large Project Review, which often includes months or more of community meetings, committee presentations and other details.
National Development has recently been talking up the plans with potential anchor tenants. Framingham-based TJX Cos., which operates Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, is one of the retailers interested in the site, according to reports.
"There’s no signed lease as of today," said Laura McDowell, a TJX Cos. spokesperson. "They’re in conversations all the time with different locations, but there’s nothing official as of today."
The real estate company agreed to redevelop the site with Purcell in 2007, but due to the recession the brakes were applied to the project that would revitalize this industrial strip between Albany Street and Harrison Avenue.
