This artist’s rendering depicts a 28-story mixed-use tower proposed for 31-45 Stuart St. in Boston’s Theater District.

Boston’s gritty Theater District could become the city’s next high-rent district, but not everyone thinks the change is good for the neighborhood.

The latest proposal for the area would transform the Jacob Wirth Restaurant’s parking lot into a condominium and hotel tower. Weston Assoc., a Boston-based multifamily housing developer, has signed an agreement to purchase the 138-year-old restaurant at 31-45 Stuart St. and the adjacent parcel.

Plans include a 28-story building with a hotel and offices on the first six floors and condominiums on the upper levels. If approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the 340,000-square-foot project would contain 108 hotel rooms, 181 luxury condos and 219 underground parking spaces.

Today, Stuart Street is an eclectic mix of retailers including a porn shop, Asian restaurants, vacant storefronts and a donut shop – most cloaked with steel grates at night to fend off vandalism and the homeless people who loiter in doorways.

But Mark Donahue, a principal at Weston Assoc., is convinced that the area will undergo a dramatic renaissance over the next decade as several projects are under construction or in the planning stages. Because the zoning limits the height of new buildings to 150 feet or about 14 stories, Donahue is seeking a so-called “U” Overlay District zoning designation that would allow taller buildings regardless of zoning regulations.

“In our opinion, that section of the city will flourish over the next two to 10 years” Donahue said. “We are certainly not the first ones in.”

Among the projects under construction or in the planning stages are 299 apartments at Kensington Place on lower Washington Street. The 30-story, $115 million project approved by the city two years ago also includes 7,378 square feet of ground-floor retail and 2,000 square feet of office space. The $114 million Park Essex residential high-rise also on Washington Street is nearly complete. The Archstone-Smith development will add another tower to the area with 420 apartments. The 704,858-square-foot development will raise 28 floors into the Boston skyline. In addition, there will be 183,000 square feet of parking on 11 levels with 5,500 square feet of retail.

Another project at Tremont and Stuart streets is tentatively slated to be a W Hotel with 220 rooms and 100 luxury condominiums on the upper floors.

The revitalization of the city’s Midtown Cultural District is a priority for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The mayor has said the new development will help create the city’s next renaissance and enliven and improve the neighborhood.

‘Piecemeal Development’
But not everyone is convinced that more $1 million-plus condos in the downtown is what the city needs. At least three neighborhood groups are angry that the proposed building is nearly twice as high as zoning allows and that residents are being forced out of their apartments by landlords who are tripling rents.

Alice Leung, community organizer at the Chinese Progressive Association, a neighborhood group that represents Chinatown, said there is a lot of opposition to the Jacob Wirth project. She asked what good it does to have zoning regulations if the city routinely grants variances.

“This pattern of development, including Kensington and Archstone, is that none of them met the zoning guidelines,” said Leung. “Yet the city consistently approves them based on the premise that such developments will bring lots of community benefits. But from Chinatown’s perspective it gentrifies the area, making it unaffordable for many longtime residents.”

The height and the price of the condos and apartments in these new buildings are of grave concern to Chinatown residents, according to Leung. A pair of apartment buildings at 34-38 Harrison Ave. – which sold in May for $3.4 million – saw rents go from $750 to $2,000, she noted.

“This is more than a neighborhood question,” said Leung. “We see the same thing happening in South Boston where the lots of luxury devolvement are being pushed in the residential area.”

June McCourt, a longtime member of the Park Plaza Civic Advisory Committee, a volunteer panel that advises the BRA about development in the area, said she too is opposed to giant-sized towers that do not fit in the neighborhood.

“These buildings are overwhelming for that area and no one is dealing with the additional traffic or how pedestrians can get around safely,” she said. “Residents are being pushed against the wall.”

Mark Slater, president of the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, said the “piecemeal development” that is taking place in and around the Theater District is not in Boston’s best interest.

“With the exception of the Jacob Wirth Restaurant, this proposed project fails to provide any pedestrian-friendly activity on La Grange or Stuart streets,” Slater said. “This kind of development will not address the ongoing problems of prostitution and drug dealing that have plagued this area. This is of obvious concern to us given our proximity to this site and the well-reported spillover of these problems into Bay Village.”

Slater said while Bay Village supports the development of blighted parking lots, he opposes the use of U district zoning.

“We are not against construction or even this building necessarily, but we vigorously oppose the U designation,” he said. “If it’s approved, the community will have no input on what is built.”

Harry Collings, the BRA’s executive secretary, said the Jacob Wirth project is still under review and that no decision has been made about it. He also insisted that the Archstone and Kensington projects had neighborhood support.

“During the public hearings people came forward supporting it and the developer made concessions on affordability [and] number of units and provided space for neighborhood businesses and nonprofits,” Collings said. “We don’t go forward with a project unless we have neighborhood support.”

Still, Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, laughed at the suggestion that the BRA listens to the neighborhoods.

“There was some support for Archstone and Kensington but it was from business leaders in Chinatown and an elder agency that will be the recipient of a community benefit from the developers,” said Lowe. “But the overwhelming number of Chinatown residents was opposed to both projects. We demonstrated our opposition at public hearings and with letters and petitions, but we had no impact at all on the BRA’s decision and we expect that to happen again over Jacob Wirth.”