Exchange South End: Details on the South End mega-project

Developer the Abbey Group in late September filed formal plans to redevelop the 5.6-acre former site of the Boston Flower Exchange off Albany Street in the South End.

The Abbey Group bought the site in 2016, and wants to start construction in fall 2018.

Here’s a rundown of what would be one of the biggest single projects to hit a Boston full of biggest single projects:

• What’s now dubbed the Exchange South End would run to nearly 1.6 million square feet and contain four new buildings.
• These buildings would total 1,481,350 square feet of commercial, technology, and life science research space.
• There would be 42,500 square feet of ground-floor retail.
• And 30,000 square feet of civic and business-incubator space.
• Much of this would be situated around a 30,000-square-foot, publicly accessible park.
• The first phase of the Exchange South End would entail construction of what the Abbey Group is calling Buildings A and B.
• Building A would be six floors and 230,000 square feet. That would include 192,855 square feet of lab space and 20,500 of retail. There would be 352 underground parking spaces.
• Building B would be 14 floors and 480,700 square feet. That square footage would include 284,030 square feet of lab space, 161,300 of office space, and 22,000 of retail. There would be 505 garage parking spaces.
• Now to Building C: A 20-story, 502,000-square-foot spire with 195,970 square feet of lab space and 298,360 of office space. There would be 288 underground parking spaces. Also, at a planned 282 feet, Building C would be the tallest of the project’s four buildings and one of the tallest buildings in the South End.
• Building D would be 15 stories and run to 386,725 square feet, with 167,955 of that for lab space and 180,880 for office space. There would be 288 underground parking spots.
• With an additional 14 surface spaces, the Exchange South End would contain a total of 1,159 parking spaces, which will not add any congestion at all to nearby I-93 (kidding!).
• Stantec is the project’s architect and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates the landscape architect.

The project is under review. Stay tuned.

• $1B tech, life science campus planned for Boston Flower Exchange site [Biz Journal]
• Boston Flower Exchange redevelopment envisions tech campus to rival Kendall [Curbed Boston]
• The 8 most significant Boston developments under construction right now [Curbed Boston]