Marriott Moxy Hotel | 240 Tremont Street (Parcel P-7A) | Theater District

[statler]

Does anybody remember the name of this project?

Originally Posted by The Globe

BRA seeks eviction of Hub Ticket from Theater District

June 30, 2006

THE REGION
The Boston Redevelopment Authority asked the Suffolk County sheriff to evict Hub Ticket Agency from a site in the Theater District that is slated to be redeveloped. The BRA board also voted to negotiate with Hub Ticket owner Angelo Sena, who was notified in February that he had to leave the site, where he has operated out of a trailer since 1975. The BRA said he pays below-market rent and no taxes. The city designated Amherst Media Investors LLC of Summit, N.J., to develop the site at Tremont and Stuart streets. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Link

[ChunkyMonkey]

Here's an article from last August.


BRA selects Amherst Media plan for Theater District development
Boston Business Journal - August 11, 2005
by Tom Witkowski
Boston Business Journal

The Boston Redevelopment Authority chose Amherst Media Investors LLC to develop a three-story glass-enclosed retail and restaurant space with an electonic video display for the corner of Tremont and Stuart streets in the Theater District.

Barbara Lynch, owner of the Boston restaurant No. 9 Park, and Nabil Sater, owner of Cambridge restaurant the Middle East, have expressed interest in the restaurant and entertainment spaces in the building.

The Wang Center has expressed interest in cultural space in the building for the Suskind Young at Arts program.

The new $5 million building will be 13,000 square feet. The building must include 5,400 square feet of office, rehearsal and conference space as a cultural component. The building will also have 2,660 square feet of specialty restaurant and possibly a ticket agency on the first floor and a 5,400-square-foot upscale restaurant, bar and entertainment use on the third floor.

An electronic sign will wrap around the corner of the building and be visible from Stuart and Tremont Streets, mimicking Time Square signs in New York City. The sign will include an 8-by-17-foot video display on the second level above the building's corner entrance. The video display will be available for commercial sponsorship and a portion of the proceeds will go to the BRA for a Theater District Improvement Fund to pay for streetscape and upkeep of the neighborhood.

The proposal was one of three received in response to a BRA request in September.

The chosen development team includes Elkus/Manfredi Architects as the architects, Shadrawy and Rabinovitz as attorney, O'Neill and Associates as development consultant, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. as engineer consultant and Suffolk Construction Inc. as general contractor.

[laramaro]

The project has been expanded since the original designation. It is now a joint venture with one of the other parties which responded to the BRA's Request for Proposals and includes 54 residential units. From the BRA's website http://www.cityofboston.gov/bra/pres...sp?pressID=299

Press Releases
BRA Moves Theatre District Parcel Forward

Project Keeps Getting Better - Now Includes Residential Component
The Boston Redevelopment Authority Board of Directors today authorized the BRA to execute a license agreement with Amherst Media Investors, LLC for Parcel P-7A. In August 2005, the BRA designated Amherst as the redeveloper for this important project, located at the corner of Tremont and Stuart Streets in the Theatre District. This project will add to the City?s ongoing efforts to reinvigorate the Theatre District and to further enhance the area?s vitality.

Today?s news also includes the partnership between Amherst and Abbott Real Estate Development for the creation of 54 much needed residential units on site. The 54 units will be studio-type condominium units, of which seven will be affordable. The project still includes the previously approved restaurant space on the first and second floors.

?We?re excited today to announce that this project now includes an even greater benefit to the city, while still activating the Theatre District with a variety of uses,? said Mark Maloney, Director of the BRA. ?This development will enliven the Stuart and Tremont Street corner with a great urban design while providing much needed housing for the Chinatown and Theatre District neighborhoods.?

Consistent with the original proposal, the project will feature stimulating signage on this important corner of the Theatre District. The Times Square-like signage component will wrap around the front corner of the parcel, visible from Stuart and Tremont Streets. The centerpiece of the signage design will be an electronic video display that will be placed at the second floor level above the corner entrance. The signage will offer up-to-date news and information, as well as arts and culture information. A portion of the signage revenue will be collected by the BRA to establish a ?Theatre District Improvement Fund,? which will go toward streetscape and general upkeep of the Theatre District area.

Press Contact: Jessica Shumaker, 617.918.4446

Release Date: January 26, 2006

[vanshnookenraggen]

Who would want to live in an area that is supposed to be 24 hour? Are their any condos in Times Sq? That seems like a pretty stupid idea. This would be much better served as a hotel.

[Ron Newman]

People who want a lively environment. What's wrong with that?

[Waldorf]

I agree that people want a lively environment, but as I said before, this is the wrong place for residential development. Uncle Bob and Aunt Nancy will be calling the police every night because of excess noise and too many lights.

[callahan]

Originally Posted by ZenZen

I agree that people want a lively environment, but as I said before, this is the wrong place for residential development. Uncle Bob and Aunt Nancy will be calling the police every night because of excess noise and too many lights.

Well, those aren't the kinds of people that should be buying there. But the real task will be for the developers to create an exciting enough environment to make that sort of person want to live in that area. Boston's not really known for its loud raucous nightlife. If they do a half assed job nobody will be interested.

[kz1000ps]

Originally Posted by vanshnookenraggen

Are their any condos in Times Sq?

Yes.

http://www.1600broadway.com/

According to an article over on WiredNY dated 1/3/06, 80% of the condos there sold within 90 days. Not too shabby at all, and it shows that there most certainly are people who would tolerate living in that whirlwind of an environment.

How this applies to the Boston site, I'm not sure. We're hip, but we're nowhere near as edgy as NY.

[lexicon506]

Who would want to live in an area that is supposed to be 24 hour?

Woah! Did I read that correctly?? Isn't that one of our main complaints on this forum? That Boston needs more round the clock lively areas, and in order for that to happen people need to LIVE there! They might as well stop building all those residences near DTX and forget the tower on the Filene's block.

[kz1000ps]

Good point Lexicon. I live on a 20 hour strip (Little Stevie's House of Pizza for Drunks closes at 3 am..) and my room overlooks the Mass Turnpike, and I enjoy it here. I can sit by my window all day watching the world go by. I think Vanshnooken's comments were in reaction to living with the signs and lights inherent in a Times Square-like environment more than the idea of a 24 hour district, but even then I made the case above that there are plenty of people willing to put up with it. But then this brings up the issue of just how much we can recreate TSq with one potentially lame project proposed so far, like what Callahan talked about.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Originally Posted by kz1000ps

Good point Lexicon. I live on a 20 hour strip (Little Stevie's House of Pizza for Drunks closes at 3 am..) and my room overlooks the Mass Turnpike, and I enjoy it here. I can sit by my window all day watching the world go by. I think Vanshnooken's comments were in reaction to living with the signs and lights inherent in a Times Square-like environment more than the idea of a 24 hour district, but even then I made the case above that there are plenty of people willing to put up with it. But then this brings up the issue of just how much we can recreate TSq with one potentially lame project proposed so far, like what Callahan talked about.

Right. Its not that I'm not for 24 hour environments but more the concern over quality of living over huge neon signs.

[PaulC]

corner to watch right now is Tremont and Stuart streets in the Theater District. A 25-story W Hotel and condo project is expected to get underway this year, and the city has picked a developer to build condos where a trailer housing a ticket agency has long been. The new kid on the block: Boston developer Haim Zahavi, who paid $5 million for what was Dominic's Bar and Grille. His broker, Edwina Brooke Petit, says Zahavi wants to put in three levels of restaurants and bars, and expand the two-floor building to maybe 10 floors to include an expensive boutique hotel.

from today's Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/business/artic...oston_sampler/

[KentXie]

ABout time the W Hotel gets underway and 10 story is a great improvement for the Time Square project.

[cubalibre]

A detailed article about the plans for a hotel/condos in that spot from march:

http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2...stonLoews.html


AND

a preliminary design from William Rawn Associates

http://www.rawnarch.com/design1.html

[Lurker]

As far as I know all the drawings were done for the hotel proposal by Bill and the only thing holding up the project was funding.

[BostonSkyGuy]

Originally Posted by Lurker

As far as I know all the drawings were done for the hotel proposal by Bill and the only thing holding up the project was funding.

Yeah, I heard that too. I read some where (I can't track down the link) that they proposed it and it was accepted, and it was taking some time for the money side of it to get together.

Reading some of these articles it looks like the money issues have been sorted out and construction will begin soon. Soon being a relative word, could be this fall or next spring, who knows.

I'm excited about this project, I think this area of town could use an influx of residents. I like the design as well, hopefully things go smoothly with this.

[statler]

Originally Posted by The Herald

Ad shop sues in bid for Beacon Hill signs
By Jay Fitzgerald
Boston Herald General Economics Reporter
Thursday, December 7, 2006 - Updated: 06:26 AM EST

A small Boston ad firm is pointing at a planned Times Square-like building in the Theater District - complete with giant flashing signs - as Exhibit A in a legal dispute over streetscape advertising in the city.
Sponsor Spot, which earlier this year was denied permission to put up huge vinyl signs on a building wall off of Cambridge Street on Beacon Hill, filed a lawsuit on Monday that asserts the city is violating its First and 14th amendment rights by nixing its ad project.
In the complaint, Sponsor Spot notes the city allows large signs elsewhere in Boston - and Mayor Thomas M. Menino himself is pushing for a glitzy ?Jumbo-Tron Times Square Copy Cat? on a proposed building at the corner of Tremont and Stuart streets in the Theater District.


?I?m really mad,? said Damien Jacob, co-owner of Sponsor Spot, asserting he?s the victim of a double standard that rejected his Cambridge Street proposal while the city pushes ahead with an even more bold signage display in the Theater District.
Preliminary site work on the Theater District parcel, now owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, has already begun.
The developers - Amherst Media Investors and Abbott Real Estate - have removed a ticket-sale trailer that sat on the site for years.
Temporary ad signage is planned for the site until developers get the final OK to build a permanent 14-story glass-covered structure, with huge outdoor signs.
The BRA, which plans to sell the city?s Theater District parcel to developers, said the Sponsor Spot and Theater District plans are different.
The Times Square-wannabe project has gone through ?extensive review? and, so far, there?s been no community opposition, said BRA spokeswoman Susan Elsbree.
Sponsor Spot?s proposed Beacon Hill wall signage is opposed by neighbors, she said.

Link


Site work is under way at the Wilbur Theatre, which is slated to have Times Square-style signs. (Staff photo by Matthew West)

[Rick]

Looks like an interesting design.

[Waldorf]

^ Oh so glitzy... :roll:

Are those going to be jumbo-tron type screens or are they going to be static images similar to those found at MBTA bus stop shelters?

[bowesst]

Has that design been approved? I remember one of the earlier renderings was only about 2 stories. While I do think the signs are a bit of a sad attempt at trying to make a "Boston Times Square," I really hope this gets built because I think it would serve as a catalyst for new development in the area. It would be great if they could make the theater district feel like one contiguous area.