DGH Hotel Partners and Global Hospitality Investment Group are seeking approval for a new hotel in South Boston. Image courtesy of Gene Kaufman Architect PC and JCJ Architecture
A proposed 438-room hotel near the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center will provide nearly half of the rooms needed to accommodate an expansion of the meeting hall, developers say.
DGH Hotel Partners and Global Hospitality Investment Group are seeking approval for the 15-story, 160,000-square-foot Anchor Street hotel.
The site totals 0.3 acres and is owned by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. The project would “significantly contribute to the city of Boston’s convention industry” by providing almost half of the rooms needed to accommodate an expansion of the BCEC, developers said in a filing with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act office.
A study completed in March determined that another 800 to 1,000 new hotel rooms that can be reserved for convention business are needed in the Seaport District to accommodate a potential 1.7-million-square-foot expansion of the convention center.
Lead by a team of consultants led by Braintree-based hospitality researchers Pinnacle Advisory Group, the study concluded that “limited hotel availability in the Seaport poses a significant challenge.”
The property is ground-leased to the owners of the Aloft and Element hotels. The new hotel would share infrastructure with the two existing hotels, which were completed in 2016.
The Anchor Street hotel would include meeting and amenity space on the lower levels and rooftop. The proposed building is 60,000 square feet smaller than the maximum allowed under a planned development area approved for the site, which would have provided 648 new rooms.
Developers estimate the project would generate 1,784 new vehicle trips daily. The project will be designed with all-electric heating and cooling systems and Passive House building designs.
Parking would be provided at a lot owned by the MCCA south of the site, expanding the three hotels’ parking capacity by 75 to 100 spaces, the filing states.
Boston has some of the nation’s most expensive hotel room rates, but hotel development has been slow to rebound following the pandemic. Only one hotel development has been completed in Boston in recent years, the 399-room citizenM in Back Bay.
NB Development broke ground this year on a 170-room hotel at 180 Guest St. in Brighton, a project that was approved in 2022.
