A 38-story apartment building that will tower over the TD Garden is set to become a new landmark at the northern gateway to Boston.
The 503-unit Avalon North Station will become Boston’s tallest rental complex and the highest-profile symbol to date of the North Station neighborhood’s reinvention. It follows the more modest examples set in recent years by the nearby Victor and Avenir apartment complexes, which have added a 24-7 element to a neighborhood that rarely swarms with street life unless there’s an event at the Garden.
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said one of his goals is creating visually distinct gateways at the entrances to the city.
"We have to make them exciting, and that’s what this project does," Walsh said at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday. "As you’re coming [into the city], one of the first things you’re going to see is this beautiful building."
Site work began in early fall on the $250-million Avalon North Station complex behind the Thomas P. O’Neill Federal Building on Causeway Street.
The complex will contain 4,000 square feet of retail space on the first two floors, and the site will contain a new walkway connecting Causeway Street to the Charles River.
Construction is expected to take three years, with the first units available in late 2016, said Scott Dale, senior vice president for AvalonBay Communities.
The Avalon project joins a busy multifamily construction scene in Boston dominated by luxury rental projects where $3,000-a-month studios are common. Dale said it was unlikely that the project would be converted into condos.
"We’re going to position ourselves to offer a little greater level of value than the competition at every level of the building," Dale said. "A lot of the competition in the neighborhood is 10 or 11 stories, so our first 20 stories will compete very well with that."
From a sky lounge and outdoor terrace on the 35th floor, residents will have views of the Zakim Bridge and the downtown skyline and harbor.
The parcel sits next to two other development sites that the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved in 2013 for a massive mixed-use complex. That project sponsored by TD Garden owners Delaware North Cos. would include two towers for a 306-room hotel, 668,000 square feet of offices, retail shops and a Star Market.
