Six large-scale retailers are "deep in evaluation" of potentially anchoring the nearly 1.2-million-square-foot, mixed-use project that will replace the Filene’s pit in downtown Boston, according to the developer.
If Millennium Partners secures commitments for portions of the 450,000 square feet of potential retail and office space planned for the site, construction could start as soon as next February, said Joseph Larkin, a principal with the real estate firm.
Larkin would not specify the prospective tenants. However, retailers like Target and Wegmans have reportedly been eying the Downtown Crossing area for new stores.
The Millennium team, which gained control of the Filene’s site earlier this year, last night presented a new design of the 600-foot residential tower to the impact advisory group (IAG) of local stakeholders appointed to advise the Boston Redevelopment Authority on project mitigation.
The property would house residents, office workers, shops and restaurants. Those uses would help to make the risk in the $620 million project more manageable, Larkin said.
"There’s no market study that says it will be successful," but Millennium is confident the area is becoming more attractive, especially given the investors like TIAA-CREF and others have been purchasing nearby properties in the last year, Larkin said.
In the new rendering, the developer’s New York designer, Handel Architects, has separated the tower from the Burnham Building, which will be completely restored. To do so, Handel pushed the tower slightly north on the site, making the building slimmer in the process, offered Blake Middleton, a partner with Handel.
Middleton presented a new rendering and scale model of the project that features a new three-story connector building between the Burnham Building and the tower that will house retail uses. The tower’s skin is all glass. In the new design, Handel has given the skyscraper serrated edges to reflect light in various directions, breaking up the monotony of what would otherwise be massive walls of glass along the streetscape. The serrations should also help mitigate the potential wind created by the new structure.
When the presentation ended, John Nucci, an IAG member and vice president of government relations and community affairs for Suffolk University, endorsed the project.
"I’ve lived in the city for my entire life," Nucci said. "This very well might be the most important project of my lifetime for bringing life into the downtown."
After the meeting, Suzanne Taylor and Margaret Carr, members of the IAG, said they did not know of any opposition to the project.
