Winthrop Square tower developer sets official groundbreaking date

Developer MP Boston is planning an October 24 groundbreaking for the 691-foot, approximately 1.6 million-square-foot skyscraper at the site of the former Winthrop Square Garage in downtown Boston. Mayor Marty Walsh is expected to be the guest of honor.

The groundbreaking will cap years of planning and debate over the site and the tower. The city received well over $100 million in its sale of the garage to MP Boston. Much of that money will go toward parkland upkeep, including $28 million each for Boston Common and Franklin Park.

As for the tower—dubbed Winthrop Center—its developer is calling the $1.35 billion expected to go into it “the largest private investment for a single project in Boston history.” That investment goes beyond realizing Handel Architects’ design for Winthrop Center. It also includes investment in city neighborhoods and in affordable housing in Chinatown.

As for the tower itself, it’s due to include approximately 500 condos on its upper floors and some 750,000 square feet of office space below. MP Boston says that it will seek Passive House Pilot Project certification—which, if it gets, will make Winthrop Center the world’s largest Passive House office building (i.e., very energy efficient).

Finally, the tower will be Boston’s—New England’s—fourth-tallest building when it’s finished in 2022, behind only 200 Clarendon, the Pru, and the new One Dalton. Stay tuned.

• One Dalton, Boston’s third-tallest tower, officially topping off [Curbed Boston]