The One Kenmore project would contain a mix of office space, housing and parking above the Massachusetts Turnpike near Boston’s Kenmore Square.
Planning for a stalled $300 million mega development that would create a new neighborhood above the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park is going into extra innings.
One Kenmore, an 850,000-square-foot urban village to be built near Boston’s Kenmore Square, would include 525 housing units, 100,000 square feet of retail space and parking for 2,360 cars. A fourth component, which would include office space and an upgraded Yawkey Commuter Rail MBTA station, now has been added to the mix for the proposed urban village.
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which owns the land and controls the air rights above the toll road, has issued a request for proposals, or RFP, for Parcel 7 located west of Brookline Avenue. Applications are due Jan. 9.
Following competitive bidding in 2002, the MTA selected John Rosenthal, president of Meredith Management Corp., to develop Parcels 8, 9 and 10 and the air rights above the turnpike that are bordered by Brookline Avenue and Lansdowne, Newbury and Beacon streets.
The project faced delays earlier this year as the Legislature debated how much money to allocate for infrastructure and public transportation improvements in Kenmore Square and the Longwood Medical area.
The other major delay came a year ago when state Rep. Martha M. Walz and Shirley Kressel, cofounder of the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods, raised questions about the public disposition process for parcel seven. The Citizens Advisory Committee, an 11-member panel appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to review the project, had asked that the parcel be annexed to Rosenthal without a bidding process.
But Kressel and Walz said the 3.6-acre site should not be given away because the city’s Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights, drafted in 2003, calls for competitive bidding. Last year, in response to the criticism, Mark Maloney, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, wrote a letter to MTA Chairman Matthew Amorello asking that the agency commence a public disposition process for Parcel 7.
In July, 12 tons of concrete fell onto a car that killed Milena Del Valle, a 38-year-old Jamaica Plain woman who was en route to Logan International Airport in the Central Artery’s Big Dig tunnel. The death renewed an examination into the troubled $14.6 billion project and put the One Kenmore proposal on hold as Amorello sought answers and fought to save his job.
But the fact that the Parcel 7 bid has been advertised is evidence that the project is back on track. In June, Gov. Mitt Romney signed legislation providing $55 million to the area, giving an added boost to one of the city’s largest development proposals.
Jonathan M. Carlisle, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Transportation, said the money will be used for planning, design and construction to upgrade the Yawkey, Kenmore, Fenway, Longwood and Ruggles MBTA stations. Roadway improvements will be made to the Sears Rotary; Ipswich, Maitland and Francis streets; Brigham Circle; and Yawkey Way. In addition, new traffic signals will be installed on Brookline and Commonwealth avenues; Boylston, Beacon and Ruggles streets; and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
“Patience is a virtue and I have a fair amount of it,” said Rosenthal, whose Newton-based company manages over $500 million worth of real estate, including over 5,000 apartments, condominiums and commercial space. “That said, I have been frustrated because it’s been more than four years since I was designated the developer for three parcels. This has been a very slow process. But I am excited that the Parcel 7 RFP is on the street.”
Rosenthal declined to say how much money he has spent in predevelopment costs, but he said it is in the millions. It will take at least another two years before a shovel is in the ground, he said. Nevertheless, Rosenthal said he would be among the bidders for Parcel 7.
‘Excessive’ Parking
The 2.5-mile Boston extension to the turnpike was built in the 1960s to improve traffic flow into the city. But in doing so, the road created a barrier between neighborhoods. Development of so-called air rights – the right to build on steel decking above the road – was devised to reconnect neighborhoods and provide economic benefits for the communities on the turnpike.
Among the competed projects are the Prudential Center, Hynes Auditorium, John Hancock Tower garage, Copley Place and Shaw’s Supermarket in Newton. In Boston’s South End, plans are under way for Columbus Center, the $650 million mini-city to be built on a 7-acre deck over the highway and railroad tracks at the Back Bay MBTA station. When completed, it would connect the three downtown neighborhoods, which are separated by the turnpike’s giant chasm.
The Boston Red Sox are not a partner in the project, but as an abutter they wield substantial leverage. Rosenthal’s original plan for a pair of high-rise towers was controversial among Red Sox executives who feared the buildings would cast a shadow on Fenway Park. As a result of negotiations between the Sox and Rosenthal, the developer moved the buildings closer to Yawkey Station – away from the park – and condensed the size of one building from 29 to 20 stories while the other was reduced from 23 to 17 stories.
The most contentious issue of the proposal so far is parking. William Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association, said his group supports dense development in the area, but will oppose “excessive” parking that will only exacerbate navigating an already congested part of the city.
“We want motorists to have as hard a time parking as possible so they think twice before driving into the neighborhood,” Richardson said. “We are not against tall buildings or to new people coming into the neighborhood. We want development because we think it adds to the city’s vitality as a whole. But the city’s zoning calls for 0.75 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet. And for this project that’s about 637 parking spaces, not 2,000-plus.”
Douglas Bailey, a Boston Red Sox spokesman, said the ball club supports Rosenthal’s concept and noted that whoever is selected to develop Parcel 7 will be required to follow the city’s vision for the area and the will of the neighborhood.
Bailey said more parking is needed, but he was not sure how much and where it would be located. In a second conversation, Bailey said he did not anticipate any increase in public parking.
“If you put too many parking spaces too many people will drive in so we don’t want too many spaces because it creates the incentive to drive rather than take public transportation,” Bailey said. “But when you look at the congestion, the double-parkers and illegal parking, something has to be done.”
Walz, the state representative whose Back Bay district is near Kenmore Square, said the delays have been mostly the result of not enough staff at the MTA.
“The turnpike authority has been extremely slow and they have not had the capacity internally to do so many things simultaneously,” she said. “There is no other explanation for the delay. They don’t have enough staff to process all the projects they are working on and they have to prioritize.”
