As if just in time for Opening Day next week March 31, the five-building, solar-powered mega-development over the Mass. Pike known as Fenway Center appears to be moving ahead. Construction could start by 2014, in fact.
The project, which would drop at least 550 apartments, plus retail and commercial space, at Brookline and Commonwealth avenues, has been held up by legal challenges from an adjoining landowner (challenges that lead developer John Rosenthal won) and from a dispute with MassDOT over a 99-year lease for the site.
But! A recent deal with between Rosenthal and development partner the Boston Red Sox for a parking garage on Lansdowne Street, opposite Fenway Park, signals that the oft-delayed Fenway Center is moving forward. (One wag said that "getting rid of Carl Crawford for half a season" freed up the $10.5M for the deal.) The garage sale, see, stems from a partnership between Rosenthal and the Sox that, according to The Herald, "paved the way for his $450 million Fenway Center project, set to break ground this year."
· Sox Hit Real Estate Deal Out of Park [Herald]
· Fenway Center, Always With the Hold-Ups [Curbed Boston]