Photo by Caitlin Cunningham

A 4,000-square-foot restaurant, 30,000-square-foot fitness center and expanded makerspaces are the next steps in developer Jamestown’s ongoing revamp of the 1.3-million-square-foot Innovation and Design Building in South Boston.

Under Jamestown’s ownership the Drydock Avenue complex has attracted a succession of tenant relocations from downtown Boston and the suburbs, including Autodesk, Elkus Manfredi Architects, MassChallenge, America’s Test Kitchen and athletic goods manufacturer Reebok, which plans to migrate from Canton this fall.

That leaves approximately 200,000 square feet available in a variety of smaller spaces at the converted Army warehouses, said Michael Phillips, president of Jamestown.

A 35,000-square-foot Makers Guild, which opened in 2015, has 10 tenants including local furniture makers, and another 24 artisans occupy stalls in the Boston Design Center section. Jamestown plans to expand incubator space by the end of the year to attract more craftspeople to the complex, Phillips said.

“It’s important to us that we have a manufacturing and makers’ component in addition to industrial design and technology,” he said. “Traditional craft is at the center of what this 21st-century industrial zone should be.”

Jamestown has spent approximately $150 million on capital improvements since acquiring the lease for the property, which is owned by the Economic Development & Industrial Corp. of Boston, Phillips said. It’s planning a new lobby for the Boston Design Center section of the complex, and a 4,000-square-foot cantina-style restaurant designed to serve Reebok employees and existing tenants, which is expected to open by the end of the year. Jamestown is interviewing potential restaurant operators to augment its existing crop of food vendors, which currently include Au Bon Pain, Jubali, Mei Mei, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, Triangle Coffee and Yankee Lobster Co., Phillips said.

A 26,000-square-foot, 2-story fitness center adjacent to the new Reebok headquarters will be open to all tenants. And America’s Test Kitchen, scheduled to relocate to the IDB in September, will launch a food truck featuring its new recipes, he said.

IDB To Enhance Food Vendors, Makerspace

by Steve Adams time to read: 1 min
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