Fenway Center’s first phase on pace to open this summer

Above is the latest rendering of the first phase of the five-building Fenway Center development where Beacon Street meets the Massachusetts Turnpike and Commonwealth Avenue.

This first phase of the 1.3 million-square-foot project will consist of 312 apartments in two residential buildings—one seven stories, the other 14—sharing the address of 771 Beacon Street and the name of Bower (as in a shady spot underneath trees or other greenery). It’s due to open this summer.

That’s a pushback from a tentative spring opening, and comes despite the two-week moratorium in place since March 16 on construction projects in Boston due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The phase is supposed to have 37,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and 200 underground parking spaces in addition to its apartments; and a 12,000-square-foot deck and landscaped pedestrian walkway over Landsdowne Station, the commuter-rail stop that the phase abuts.

Rents are expected to range from $2,900 to $5,800 a month, according to Gerding Edlen, which is developing the phase along with Meredith Management and Nuveen Real Estate.

A mid-March release from the developers describes Bower as “one of the city’s most significant urban design stories in a generation.” It’s infill, too, covering in part a former parking lot—one of a long line of Boston surface lots recently to host new development.

As for the rest of Fenway Center, the Boston Planning and Development Agency signed off on changes last week. That second phase, which Meredith and life sciences developer IQHQ are building, will now be a mix of office, research and development, and life sciences space rather than residential, office, and lab use—in large part to capitalize on the Boston region’s booming life sciences industry.

The third building also dropped in height from 27 stories to 22 and the fourth rose from eight to 10 floors, according to IQHQ. Those buildings will also share a base; and the fifth building will be an automated garage.

The entire Fenway Center project will go over and around the Mass. Pike, and is the largest development currently underway in Boston using air rights, according to the developers.