The epic five-building, solar-powered Fenway Center project got its final O.K. on Wednesday. The directors of the state Transportation Department signed off on a 99-year lease for developer John Rosenthal to build over the Mass. Pike the $500 million mixed-use project that will include well over 500 apartments.
Fenway Center was first pitched in 2007. Then, legal challenges from an adjoining landowner (challenges that Rosenthal won) held it up as did a dispute with the state over the 99-year lease. Then, this past March a deal for a parking garage on Lansdowne Street, opposite Fenway Park, seemed to signal that the project was moving forward. Ditto a May deal with the state over air rights and the lease.
However! Just as everything seemed clear and inevitable, a couple of DOT directors requested more information on the project. It was all a matter of mere procedure, we were assured, but there it was: another hold-up on the road to transforming a 4.5-acre site of mostly parking lots and cut-throughs around Brookline Avenue and Beacon Street. Wednesday's O.K. makes everything better. Rosenthal pronounced himself "ecstatic," and the first signs of construction could pop up before the end of the year.
· Fenway Center Project Clears Last Hurdle [Globe]
· Fenway Center, Always With the Hold-Ups [Curbed Boston]
· Get Ready, Mr. Sun! Epic Fenway Center Leaps Legal Hurdle [Curbed Boston]
· So It Looks Like Fenway Center's Back On... [Curbed Boston]
· Play Ball! Five-Building Fenway Center Definitely, Probably On [Curbed Boston]
· Epic Fenway Center Off Again [Curbed Boston]
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