After about five years of vacancy, concrete plans have been made to fill the empty lot in Downtown Crossing where Filene’s flagship store used to sit.
Millennium Partners, a New York developing firm that has done several projects in Boston, will invest in a new tower for the lot that will have retail, office and residential space, according to a City of Boston press release.
“We have long dreamed of what Downtown Crossing could become and we will soon realize that potential with Millennium stepping up to the plate and making this deal happen,” said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in the release.
Vornado Realty Trust has owned the lot, according to its website, since 2006. After purchasing the space at One Franklin for about $100 million, the company did little to renovate it to the chagrin of Menino and other city officials.
But after recent negotiations, the city announced on Friday that Millennium Partners will invest in the project to build a “mixed-use” tower. Several city officials said the project, slated to cost about $500 million, will revitalize the spirit of the area.
“The hole in the ground was just something we were having a difficult time overcoming. It was really like an open wound that needed to be closed, that needed to be healed,” said Rosemarie Sansone, president of the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District Corporation.
Businesses that flank the longtime-abandoned site, a lone hole in an otherwise bustling area, expressed their enthusiasm about the plans for the space, she said.
“In addition to our BID members being very excited, the residents are excited, the employees are excited – everyone is really thrilled at this news,” Sansone said.
To develop the area, Boston City Council President Stephen Murphy said Downtown Crossing needs a firmly established set of businesses – something the empty plot has marred for the past several years.
“[A commercial] area is only as good as the retail stores that anchor it down,” Murphy said.
He said losing Filene’s meant Downtown Crossing lost some of its commercial vitality as well.
“A tremendous amount of business was lost,” he said. “I talked to a lot of [retail shops in the area] – we heard just how devastating it was not having an anchoring store.”
The proposed plans include space for several retailers on the ground level of the building, said Boston Redevelopment Authority spokeswoman Susan Elsbree, adding that it was too early to tell what stores would be there.
She said although the BRA considered it “a high priority to get [the site] reactivated,” the agency did not deal directly in the agreement with Millennium. The transaction between Vornado Realty and the developers, she said, was conducted privately.
Millennium will take the lead on the project, according to the press release, and will file a Notice of Project Change with the BRA in the coming months. Construction could begin in about a year.
Building the tower, Elsbree said, “will have a tremendous economic impact [including] certainly hundreds and hundreds of construction jobs.”
Before building can begin, architect Gary Handel, of Handel Architects LLP, will design the tower. The firm, which has designed a range of award-winning buildings, has worked in Boston in the past with projects such as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and One Charles, an 18-story condominium building downtown.
In both of these projects, the firm worked with Millennium. Despite the history of partnerships between the companies involved with the project, in the negotiations prior to the recent decisions, many companies vied to invest in the space, Sansone said.
The negotiations came after the city did some dealing of its own, Murphy said.
“The mayor was adamant in getting Vornado to do something about the [hole],” he said.
He said the city had to pressure Vornado into making a decision.
A spokesman from Vornado said the company would not comment on the Boston property.
Although more deals and negotiations are pending, Menino said he was pleased with the companies’ first decision.
“This took a lot of hard work and difficult negotiations, but we are very proud to be moving forward,” he said in the release. “This agreement is a first, but very important step to a new beginning for the site at One Franklin.”
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