Like you late last week, we were positively mesmerized by the Boston Redevelopment Authority's approval of the mother of all recent Boston towers, the $620 million, 625-foot Millennium Tower in Downtown Crossing. But, as Casey Ross at The Globe reminds us, the BRA O.K.'d other projects on Thursday that will add a plethora of apartments and commercial space to a city already suddenly teeming with new development (fat lot it will do for housing costs, but still...). Here are the highlights:
· Millennium Tower. You know all about this one by now: the long-sought something to go at the old Filene's site on Washington Street. That something will be the city's third-tallest tower (and tallest residential one) with at least 500 units (condos and rentals); retail, offices and restaurants; and a refurbishment of the adjacent Burnham Building.
· New Brighton Landing. This $500 million puppy will spread over 14 acres off Guest Street in Brighton and will encompass 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, including New Balance's HQ and a new commuter rail station (new!). It will not have apartments, but is supposed to have a 175-room hotel (though that's under further review).
· 1282 Boylston Street. This 322-unit tower, with rentals all the way up to three bedrooms, is part of the general real estate renaissance around celebrated beer garden Fenway Park. It's being built by the same developer behind Downtown Crossing's 45 Province.
· 35 Northampton Street and 860 Harrison Avenue. The $52 million renovation of the former Boston City Hospital Nursing School will create 245 affordable-housing units.
· 275 Albany Street. The two-tower project will include 220 apartments (none bigger than two bedrooms) and 325 hotel rooms as well as streetscape improvements like reconstructed pedestrian rights of way with park benches and cafe tables. As developer Normandy Real Estate Partners put it in a summer statement, 275 Albany "will ... serve as a buffer between the imposing hulk of the Southeast Expressway and the historic South End neighborhood." Bring it.
· Skyline Blooms as Boston O.K.'s Over $1.5B in Projects [Globe]
· Tenant Shifts New Balance [Herald]
· Mayor Menino Announces More New Projects Moving Forward [BRA]
· Why the Hub Housing Market Could Get Worse, Much Worse [Curbed Boston]
· Ladies and Gentlemen, the Millennium Tower [Curbed Boston]
· Always Look on the Brighton Side of Life: It Could Cost More [Curbed Boston]
· As Red Sox Open, Surrounding Fenway Takes a Bow [Curbed Boston]
· O, Albany Street! Building the Perfect South End 'Buffer' [Curbed Boston]