Image courtesy of Dennis Mires
The family that’s owned the Kowloon restaurant for 75 years unveiled a new redevelopment plan to demolish the North Shore landmark to make way for 198 apartments.
The project would include a smaller, permanent location in one of the two apartment buildings planned for the 948 Broadway property in Saugus.
A North Shore landmark, the Kowloon opened in 1950 as one of the first Chinese restaurants in the Boston suburbs. Over the decades, it expanded through a series of additions to its current 1,200 capacity, while Route 1 became a thriving commercial strip dotted with colorful roadside kitsch ranging from Prince Pizzeria’s leaning tower to Route 1 Mini Golf & Batting Cages’ orange dinosaur.
In a recent interview, Kowloon operator Bob Wong promised that the Kowloon will live on in a modified form in the redevelopment. The restaurant will occupy approximately 20,000 square feet on the ground floor of one of the apartment buildings, potentially with capacity for up to 300 patrons.
“It’s going to be bittersweet when they knock the building down because this is a place that I’ve been going here for over 50 years driving to work,” Wong told NBC10 Boston.
Michael McKeown, a partner with Dennis Mires Architects of Manchester, New Hampshire, presented the redevelopment plans to the Saugus Planning Board on Thursday. The Wong family is listed as the applicant for the site plan and master plan review of the 7-acre site at 948 Broadway.
The development originally was envisioned as 220 units, but reduced to 198 following discussions with Saugus officials, McKeown said.
Both buildings would include commercial space on the ground floors, including the new incarnation of the Kowloon. The 6-story buildings would include underground and at-grade parking along with surface parking.
The two buildings would be built in phases, enabling the current Kowloon restaurant to remain open during construction of the first building, McKeown said.
Pink exterior panels and a large vertical “Kowloon” sign would run down the side of one building, announcing to passers-by that “this is really where the fun is happening,” McKeown said.
