The employees inhabiting offices in Boston’s Landmark Center feel they are working in a confusing fortress where pedestrian access is limited and the elevator accessing some upper floors is well hidden in a second-floor eating area.
The current owner of the building, towering over the corner of Park Drive and Brookline Avenue in the city’s Fenway neighborhood, had long adored the grandeur of the building, originally constructed for Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 1929.
But after hearing the denizens’ opinions of the property, and being informed that a 500,000-square-foot tenant — Blue Cross Blue Shield — would be moving out in 2015, real estate developer Samuels & Assoc. was faced with a choice: Attempt to fill the space with new tenants or completely rethink the property, which houses several big-name retail tenants as well as a multi-theater cinema complex.
"That really set us in a different direction" in how the developer viewed the building, said Peter Sougarides, executive vice president for Samuels, which purchased the property from Boston development firm The Abbey Group for $453 million in 2011.
Now, Samuels has proposed redeveloping the property. The plan includes demolishing the massive parking garage at the rear and building 550 apartments, a 75,000-square-foot Wegmans supermarket, more than 100,000 square feet of new retail space and about 15,000 square feet of office space on the 6.8-acre site. The new buildings would reach 200 feet in height. And, as shown in a scale model revealed at a community meeting about the project last night, the developer will incorporate the MBTA’s Fenway Green Line T stop into one of the private apartment buildings. In the model, the station can be accessed by the public from the outside, but residents would reach the station through a covered extension of the building.
The proposal would carve a path right through the first floor of the 200-foot-tall tower at the front of Landmark Center to allow pedestrians to access Fullerton Street from inside the property, as well as other cut-throughs to increase connectivity at the site, said David Manfredi of Elkus Manfredi Architects, the firm designing the project. He envisions creating a food market and retail center with a butcher, an oyster bar and coffee shops, among other uses.
The first floor of the redeveloped project, if approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, would include some retail and parking. The second floor would have movie theaters and the rest would be retail. The third floor would house office space and theater space, as well as private greenspace at the base of the residential buildings, inaccessible to the public.
If approved as planned, the site’s redevelopment would create 2.2 acres of parkland along Park Drive, Brookline Avenue and Fullerton Street. At the corner of Fullerton and Brookline, outdoor plaza seating would replace the level concrete, along with sculptural benches, possible water features and public art. Along the Park Drive side of the building, the development team plans to eliminate the current surface parking and create more greenspace, with the potential for performance space for public concerts or an arbor.
