Source: Arrowstreet
Ground leases have been signed with development companies for a 500,000-square-foot hotel and residential development in Boston’s Seaport District.
A joint venture of Hyatt Hotel Corp. and Denver-based McWhinney Real Estate Services will develop the 12-story, 293-room hotel at Massport’s parcel K at 315 Northern Ave., a parking lot across from the Bank of America Pavilion. Lincoln Property Co. and Phoenix Property Co. will develop a 12-story, 304-unit apartment building and an underground parking garage, Massport spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan said. The project includes 18,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space and 14,400 square feet of office space.
Plans to develop the 2.4-acre surface parking lot go back to the previous decade. Massport designated Stoughton-based Conroy Development as developer in 2009, and the former Boston Redevelopment Authority approved the project in 2014.
After the new development team took over, the Boston Planning and Development Agency in 2016 approved modified plans for 304 apartments, a 293-room boutique hotel and 14,400 square feet of office space. The changes increased the hotel room count from 247 and dropped two of the three levels of underground parking, reducing the number of spaces from 197. The developers said they had the option of using stacking parking systems and valet services to accommodate 420 vehicles.
Terms of the leases were not immediately available.
McWhinney has developed six hotel projects totaling 772 rooms in partnership with Stonebridge Cos., according to its web site. A spokesman said the company would be providing additional details on the Boston project shortly.
Hotel developers are seeking to meet the growing demand from business travelers near the Seaport’s office tower boom.
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Convention last year released a study that predicted that bookings could decline up to 41 percent from 2018 to 2021 because of a shortage of hotel room blocks in the Seaport reserved for meeting business.
In April, Massport selected a consortium of developers including Omni Hotels & Resorts and Boston-based Davis Cos. to build a 1,054-room hotel on Summer Street across from the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Wellesley-based Harbinger Development received BPDA approval in 2016 for a 411-room Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites extended-stay hotel at 660 Summer St.
