Tower Records > Virgin Megastore > Best buy bldg

[Digital_Islandboy]

I'm still wonder what is going to go into the Tower Records > Virgin Megastore > Best Buy building on the corner of Newbury St. and Mass Ave. ?

Someone mentioned Best Buy today, and it jogged my memory that the old "Tower Records building" will no longer have Best Buy as a tenant.

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Article: Best Buy is 'Tower Records' building's latest hard-luck tenant
Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 2:37pm EDT - Last Modified: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 1:12pm EDT
Source: Boston Business Journal by Galen Moore, Web Editor
Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/re...t-buy-ceo.html

Time will certainly tell, but is there something that should go there?

[datadyne007]

Dave & Busters. Hands down. Boston sorely needs one in the core (South Shore Plaza is too hard to access via the T), especially with the sheer amount of college students. Now that I'm thinking of it, this is a much better place than the one I proposed for Assembly Row.

[kmp1284]

Not a snowball's chance in hell. People don't pay the kinds of prices those condos brought to live over what amounts to a Chuckie Cheese.

[Ron Newman]

Nor to live over a Best Buy ... but they did.

[datadyne007]

...It's a city. You live on top of things. I know this is kind of a foreign thing to Boston.

The industry solved noise insulation and such long, long ago. You wouldn't even know what was downstairs really. I think the model fits perfectly. Upscale restaurant along Newbury on the ground floor, games, pool hall, and conference room on the two upper floors.

Other than that, mega-stores are dead. Best Buy is dying. Virgin died. Tower died. The space is relatively useless in its current format.

[Ron Newman]

Can it be subdivided?

[datadyne007]

Originally Posted by Ron Newman

Can it be subdivided?

It would be sloppy because of the elevation change. We'd have another Converse-store fiasco with ramps and aesthetics.

[vanshnookenraggen]

It will probably be a bank.

[czsz]

Originally Posted by datadyne007

Dave & Busters. Hands down. Boston sorely needs one in the core (South Shore Plaza is too hard to access via the T), especially with the sheer amount of college students. Now that I'm thinking of it, this is a much better place than the one I proposed for Assembly Row.

I'm sick of people asking for this. Boston isn't Denver or Cincinnati and can (or at least should) do better nightlifewise than some Anytown, USA chain entertainment complex, especially on Newbury St. of all places.

[KentXie]

Originally Posted by czsz

I'm sick of people asking for this. Boston isn't Denver or Cincinnati and can (or at least should) do better nightlifewise than some Anytown, USA chain entertainment complex, especially on Newbury St. of all places.

I've never been to Cincinnati or Denver but Boston's nightlife sucks so if anything, it's possible that it's comparable to the two cities.

[datadyne007]

Originally Posted by czsz

I'm sick of people asking for this. Boston isn't Denver or Cincinnati and can (or at least should) do better nightlifewise than some Anytown, USA chain entertainment complex, especially on Newbury St. of all places.

Well... the current nightlife situation, which has been the same static situation for years, is not working.

[bbfen]

Originally Posted by czsz

I'm sick of people asking for this. Boston isn't Denver or Cincinnati and can (or at least should) do better nightlifewise than some Anytown, USA chain entertainment complex, especially on Newbury St. of all places.

Don't worry, it'll never happen in the Back Bay proper.

[Ron Newman]

I'm trying to remember what this was before it was Tower Records, and I can't. Does anyone else know?

[underground]

Originally Posted by Ron Newman

I'm trying to remember what this was before it was Tower Records, and I can't. Does anyone else know?

Peter Boyle's bar in Friend's of Eddie Coyle!

[Ron Newman]

But was that 2 or 3 stories high?

[whighlander]

Originally Posted by vanshnookenraggen

It will probably be a bank.

Van -- actually, that's a good guess for the ground floor

I think it would be an ideal location for another small hotel upstairs with retail & restaurant use at street and basement level -- perhaps connecting into the Green Line station

[datadyne007]

I agree that this is a perfect opportunity to connect the station within the development. That also lends itself to initiating a station renovation!!

[HenryAlan]

It should be incorporated in to an air rights project.

[bbfen]

It's just Best Buy that's gone, not the condos from the 4th up. Not sure how you get a hotel into such a small footprint with any hope for return.

I don't understand what you mean by "connect the station within the development." The 360 people are vehemently against developing the adjacent parcels. I wouldn't count on their cooperation.

[AmericanFolkLegend]

Originally Posted by datadyne007

Well... the current nightlife situation, which has been the same static situation for years, is not working.

And Chuck E Cheese with a liquor license is the answer?
Maybe I'm just being pessimistic because I've never been big into video games...