The mother of all recent Boston towers is taking shape. When, in early February, Ritz Carlton developer Millennium Partners announced it was taking the lead on filling the old Filene's site in Downtown Crossing, the news was greeted with an admixture of joy and relief. Something at the site! A new apartment tower in a tight housing market! Vornado not leading the building! At the announcement, details were scarce of what exactly would go up. Not anymore. The developer stepped up yesterday and dropped a doozy on us all. Let's see:
· It will be called Millennium Tower and will be 606 feet tall and about 55 floors.
· That's a lot taller than the 39 floors and 495 feet Vornado, the New York-based real estate investor, had planned back in mid-decade but never quite got around to building. It will be the fourth-tallest tower in Boston.
· It will have 500 units, both condos and rentals, again a lot more than Vornado ever planned (163); and, according to the developer, 230,000 square feet of "active and varied retail shopping on the lower floors reaching across the entire site." Target's even a possibility, which means Downtown Crossing's really arrived.
· To put the 500 units in perspective, the planned 47-story Copley Place, Boston's future tallest condo tower, will have 318.
· It will have 525 underground parking spaces.
· The historic Burnham Building will be renovated and incorporated into the sleek, glassy design by Handel Architects.
· The whole shebang will cost $615 million.
Seems like a game-changer, no? Millennium, as we've noted, is used to those, here and elsewhere (the new tower will be taller than anything the second tallest Millennium's built so far, nudging aside the 545-foot Millennium Park apartment-and-retail tower on Manhattan's Upper West Side). Now, it's all got to go through the Boston Redevelopment Authority and public review. But, given the hosannas at last winter's announcement, Boston postcard-makers should fire up the presses, the skyline's 'bout to change.
· Developer Pitches New Design for Filene’s Site [Globe]
· Developer Plans 606-Foot Tower at Former Filene’s Site [Herald]
· Filene's Site to Be Filled! Ritz Developer Behind New Tower [Curbed Boston]
· For Filene's Site Builder, Game-Changing Mojo from NYC to JP [Curbed Boston]
· Boston's Tallest Condo Tower Gets More Affordable Housing [Curbed Boston]
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