The western edge of Back Bay is becoming the epicenter of Boston’s newest hotel development cluster.
New York developer Peebles Corp. kicked off permitting Friday for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s parcel 13 air rights project, involving the redevelopment of a 1.25-acre site at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. Peebles proposes a 432,000-square-foot hotel and condo building with ground-floor retail space and 200 spaces of above-grade parking.
MassDOT named Peebles Corp. the designated developer of parcel 13 in 2014 following a request for proposals. Since then, Peebles has increased the proposed building heights to 145 and 221 feet to “accommodate additional infrastructure complexities determined through the due diligence process,” according to a letter of intent submitted to the Boston Planning & Development Agency. Trademark Partners of Boston, which is working as a consultant to Peebles, was not immediately available for additional comment.
“These air rights projects are extremely complex and expensive financially, as past attempts have surely proven beyond any doubt,” CEO Don Peebles said in a prepared statement. “We have been working with both the MBTA and MassDOT for almost five years, and have made some improvements that have taken into consideration updating code, life safety and resiliency issues not previously required in the RFP.”
Part of the property is located above the MBTA’s Hynes station, and the project will include upgrades including a pair of new headhouses on Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street, and upgrades to the station’s power system.
Peebles is moving forward at the same time that Boston-based Samuels & Assoc. prepares to begin construction on a hotel and office tower on the nearby parcel 12, which will include a pedestrian tunnel beneath Massachusetts Avenue to the Newbury Street entrance to Hynes station.
The project would join a group of high-profile developments changing the Back Bay landscape.
Samuels & Assoc. announced in December that Dutch hotel chain citizenM will operate the 144,000-square-foot hotel that’s part of its parcel 12 air rights development opposite the end of Newbury Street on Massachusetts Avenue, which also will include an office tower anchored by CarGurus.
Boston-based developer Trinity Financial began talks with The Harvard Club of Boston last year on plans to build a 200-room hotel on the club’s rear parking lot along the Newbury Street Extension.
And Gov. Charlie Baker is seeking legislative approval to sell the nearly 6-acre Hynes Convention Center property to a private developer to help pay for a $500 million expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
