Massachusetts Turnpike project at Boylston Street and Mass. Ave. comes back to life

Plans to develop Back Bay’s so-called Parcel 13 at Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street stretch back to the earlier half of the past decade. Various financing and logistical challenges have held back such construction—but now it appears to be advancing.

Developer Peebles Corporation has filed preliminary plans with the Boston Planning and Development Agency to construct a 17-story, 430,000-square-foot condo and hotel project at the site. It would include 200 garage parking spots as well as public open space and ground-floor retail. More detailed plans are forthcoming as is a schedule of community meetings, per the Globe’s Tim Logan.

Peebles scored permission to build on the state-owned Parcel 13 way back in 2014. Plans originally called for a project dubbed the Viola Back Bay—a nod to the nearby Berklee College of Music—which would’ve included hotel rooms and condos too (it’s rendered above).

That plan stalled, and went. Parcel 13 sits not only amid the Mass. Pike but next to the Hynes Convention Center T stop, adding another layer of logistical complexity to any project. But building over the Pike is now kind of voguish, given financing avenues and the sheer demand for both hotels and housing in Boston.

Developer Samuels & Associates plans to break ground this spring on a two-tower project where the interstate intersects with Boylston Street and Mass. Ave. And the five-building Fenway Center farther down the road is well underway. Though it’s not all coming up aces for turnpike projects: A two-building one at 1000 Boylston Street collapsed last summer amid technical and financing challenges.

A Peebles consultant told the BPDA that the newest plan for Parcel 13 is “financially feasible.” Stay tuned.