Winthrop Square tower’s proposed height shrinks again

Millennium Partners, the developer behind a proposal to replace the Winthrop Square Garage in downtown Boston with a mixed-use tower, has shrunk the height of that proposal again in order to appease critics as well as federal regulators.

The spire was originally supposed to be 775 feet—which would have made the Winthrop Square tower the tallest primarily residential building in New England and the second-tallest in Boston.

Millennium this past fall dropped the height to 702 feet, however, to assuage Federal Aviation Administration worries about its presence in flight paths in and out of Logan Airport.

There was also the little matter of shadows that critics said the tower would cast over Boston landmarks such as the Common and the Public Garden.

The proposed tower’s newest height—691 feet, following a major environmental-impact review—is designed to appease that concern and the FAA, too. For those scoring at home, the new height is a full 84 feet off the original.

However, as the Globe’s Tim Logan points out, the tower would still be formidable, with some 1.6 million square feet of space, including an additional 115,000 square feet of office space not included in earlier proposals.

It would also pack in 640,000 more square feet of condos, a potential $64 million payoff for the city under terms of the deal that allowed Millennium to buy the city-owned garage.

The building would stand 52 floors and be the fourth-tallest in Boston.

Will the new plan fly? There are still details to be worked out, including regarding affordable housing tied to the project, and the environmental-impact report resets the public-review process.

Stay tuned. This is one of the biggest real estate question marks of 2018.

• Revised plans for Winthrop Square tower don’t go to such great heights [Globe]
• Winthrop Square Garage tower chops height to comply with FAA regulations [Curbed Boston]
• Boston’s 10 tallest buildings by 2020, mapped [Curbed Boston]
• Boston-area real estate in 2018: The biggest question marks [Curbed Boston]