Samuels and Associates

Dec 15, 2022

The Parcel 12 site under construction in June 2022. David L. Ryan/Boston Globe Back Bay and Fenway are two of Boston’s liveliest and busiest neighborhoods. But for years, traveling between the two has not been easy for pedestrians. Now, a series of developments are underway that would cover the Massachusetts Turnpike and provide increased pedestrian accessibility for people wishing to explore these parts of the city. The people behind these projects detailed their work for Bisnow at the recent “Fenway Forecast: Mixed-Use and Multifamily” event. “The Fenway cannot be, as it is built, a place where people use their cars,” Boston City Councilman Kenzie Bok said at the event, according to Bisnow. “Yes, we need people to come by public transport, but we also need people to be able to walk.” Package 12 Those who regularly take the Mass. Pike in the heart of the city are probably already familiar with the development of plot 12, which will link Newbury Street and Boylston Street. Construction began in August 2020 on the project. It will consist of two buildings connected by a landscaped public square. There will be approximately 325,000 square feet of office space, 70,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 150,000 square feet of residential or hotel uses, according to the Boston Planning & Development Agency. This will include the global headquarters of CarGurus. A parking garage with approximately 150 spaces will also be included. “Parcel 12 will link the Back Bay and Fenway neighborhoods, connect the South End and the city of Cambridge, and significantly improve the street-level experience along Massachusetts Avenue between Boylston and Newbury streets,” said the developer Samuels & Associates on the project website. . Because the project is largely being built on empty space above the freeway, Samuels & Associates secured special air rights before construction began, WBUR reported. It is the first air rights development to begin in the city since Copley Place in the 1980s. Parcel 12 has become a nuisance to some, as construction necessitated a number of lane closures on the freeway below. Developers now say work involving the highway will be less frequent in the future. Those behind the development of Parcel 12 say that ultimately there will be a marked improvement in the transport infrastructure of the region. This includes upgrades to Massachusetts Avenue with separate bike lanes, a new sheltered MBTA bus stop, widened sidewalks, updated crossing signals and a new entrance to the Hynes Convention Center Green Line station. “Building above freeways, building above working train stations is about bringing people together,” Samuels Senior Vice President Andi Simpson said at the Bisnow event. Fenway Center This development is another air rights project slated to span Mass. Pike, from Brookline Avenue to Beacon Street. Two buildings will contain 720,000 square feet of laboratories and offices dedicated to life sciences. One high-rise building will have 22 floors and another mid-rise building will have 12 floors, according to real estate agency IQHQ. “When we had the opportunity to work on Fenway Center, it was a perfect fit with our vision and being able to invest in a growing neighborhood,” said Kim Thai, IQHQ’s Director of Development at the Bisnow event. The project is designed to grow the city’s research economy, creating a hub of the kind of work that is often confined to Kendall Square in Cambridge, according to architectural firm Gensler. According to Gensler, the Fenway Center will have public amenities such as retail space, walkways, over an acre of landscaped open space, and connections to local transit options. The private public spaces, created through the BPDA’s development review process, will allow pedestrians to move between Beacon Street, Brookline Avenue and David Ortiz Way, according to Bisnow. Package 13 The final major development that would span the freeway would be built on the site of Parcel 13, located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street, partially across multiple lanes of the Mass. Pike and partly on MBTA’s Hynes station. There would be two main buildings in the proposed project, according to the BPDA. One would be an apartment tower made up entirely of affordable housing. It would have 10 floors and contain 125 units. “The thing is, other families want to be in this resource-rich neighborhood as well,” Legacy Real Estate CEO Jerrod Delaine said at the Bisnow event. “They want access to a great education, good jobs and good transportation.” The other building would be a 300,000 square foot, 12-story structure with a laboratory and offices. The development of Parcel 13 is a joint venture and MassDOT has granted development rights to Peebles Corp. and at Legacy Real Estate Development on the condition that they carry out major renovations at the adjacent Hynes station, according to Bisnow. The project would also contain a “micro-mobility hub”, according to the BPDA. It would be more than 100 public spaces for bicycles with lockers made available to the public. However, there will be no on-site parking. Newsletter Sign-Up