Boston’s offer to let the private sector build housing on municipal properties is shaping up as a big hit in the real estate industry, with developers floating plans for a 700-foot skyscraper downtown and a 456-unit residential tower at the Columbus Avenue fire station.
South Boston-based developer Cronin Group is touting a 61-story tower at 26 Court St. above the 11-story City Hall Annex. The estimated $453 million project would contain over 500,000 square feet of housing and offices.
New York-based Midwood Investment and Management proposed a 24-story tower above a new fire station at 200 Columbus Ave. in South End. And developers Leggat McCall Properties and A.W. Perry Inc. submitted separate proposals to redevelop the 3-acre fire department headquarters on Southampton Street.
“We got a lot of great information about what sites might make sense and spoke to several of the developers that proposed ideas to dive deeper,” said Marcy Ostberg, director of the city’s Housing Innovation Lab.
The recent request for interest is a precursor to a formal disposition process, which will kick off after the city picks preferred sites and resolves lingering legal questions.
The Housing Innovation Lab received 24 responses after it sought redevelopment ideas that include housing at 83 municipal properties, seeking to promote affordability while modernizing public buildings. Respondents ranged from local nonprofits to deep-pocketed developers who have completed billions of dollars in projects.
150 Seaport Developer Thinks Big
South Boston-based Cronin Group vaulted into large-scale development in 2015 when it proposed tearing down its Atlantic Beer Garden and Whiskey Priest properties at 150 Seaport Boulevard in favor of a 22-story luxury condominium tower, which is scheduled to break ground this summer.
In a submission, Cronin Group said it’s interested in redeveloping the 106-year-old City Hall Annex at 26 Court St., built on the site of a former courthouse and Boston’s first jail. Designs by Elkus Manfredi Architects call for renovation of the historic structure, and construction of a tapering glass tower including 400 housing units and 107,780 square feet of office space. Cronin Group would partner with an institutional investor and ground-lease the property from the city, according to its submission.
At a height of 700 feet, the tower would be the fourth tallest building in the city. But developers say it would not generate any new shadow on Boston Common, a legal sticking point for skyscrapers in the downtown area.
Developer Jon Cronin did not respond to a request for comment, but the company’s submission states that the residential component would include both affordable and workforce housing. Cronin Group said it also would like to renovate the former Kirstein Business Library at 20 City Hall Ave., with part of the building converted into an arts center.
“With its proximity to Government Center and historic Faneuil Hall, there is no opportunity exactly like this one where affordable and workforce housing, coupled with the arts and civic engagement, is such an obvious fit,” the submission stated.
Fire Department Headquarters Could Be Relocated
City officials sought redevelopment of fire department properties including the Southampton Street headquarters, hoping that a redevelopment would include building upgrades to eliminate cancer-causing materials in firefighters’ workplaces.
Boston-based A.W. Perry Inc. sees a potential land swap as unlocking the redevelopment of the fire department headquarters property. It’s seeking to acquire a nearby parcel which could be used to relocate the fire department building.
That would free up the department’s 3-acre 115 Southampton St. property for development, potentially including life science, office or industrial space, said Michael Healey, acquisition and development associate at A.W. Perry. The financial prospects to support multifamily development near the crossroads of South End and Roxbury would depend upon the purchase price, Healey said.
“It’s a little bit of a grittier area,” he said. “Industrial historically has made sense there, but we thought residential could work there. If the city could look at it as a way to partner with the developers, and almost subsidize the development by not taking market value upfront, we could deliver what the community needs. You tell me what you need and what the city wants to build, and I’ll tell you what I can pay for it.”
The next steps include narrowing down the list of prime sites that will be offered in individual requests for proposals, Ostberg said. The city also is researching local and state laws that govern the disposition of public properties, who would be responsible for managing construction, and preferred ownership structures. It’s expected that developers would lease the properties from the city, or potentially buy them and carve out a condo structure for remaining municipal portions, she said. Community input will also play a role.
“We’re trying to get to the RFP and our intention is to do this for real,” she said.
