A phased approach to an air-rights project
In December 2017, Boston City Properties reported that Fenway Center’s developers hoped to start work before 2018 after years of financing, litigation and infrastructure delays. The roughly 4.5-acre site involved development near Kenmore Square and above the Massachusetts Turnpike.
The first phase called for two apartment buildings with 313 homes, leaving the deck and a 27-story tower for a later phase. A further 335 homes were mentioned for the tower. The article described a roughly $600 million project and a $21 million, 99-year state lease associated with the revised approach.
Totals that do not agree
The account gave both 550 and 650 homes for the ultimate development, and both 1.1 million and 1.3 million square feet for its overall size. Those discrepancies cannot be resolved from this article alone. The numbers should not be combined into a single approved project schedule.
More consistently described elements included 50,000 square feet of retail, 160,000 square feet of offices, 1,290 parking spaces and five buildings in the broader plan. The article also discussed approximately 30,000 square feet of green space, a daycare center, community space, bike share and bicycle storage.
Station and street connections
The report recalled a $14.9 million renovation of Yawkey commuter-rail station completed in 2014, including two platforms accessible from Brookline Avenue and Beacon Street. It contrasted capacity for up to 40 daily trains with an earlier 17-train arrangement. Those were reported station figures at the time, not a current timetable.
The Yawkey Way extension, new access roads and links for pedestrians and bicycles were part of the surrounding infrastructure discussion. Proposed traffic relief and economic benefits were expectations, not measured results.
The proposed buildings and architecture
The first two residential buildings were described as seven and 13 stories, totaling approximately 339,000 square feet. Later-phase plans included a roughly 375,000-square-foot tower, a 111,000-square-foot residential building above the Turnpike and a seven-story garage on the air-rights deck.
The article credited Carlos Zapata Studio with the original master plan and the Architectural Team with subsequent design work. It described a gradual increase in building scale, green space, pedestrian routes and planned solar features. These were design intentions rather than verified final construction or environmental certification.
The neighborhood context and unresolved deadline
The report placed the project among Fenway-Kenmore’s brownstones, walk-ups, shops, universities and developments such as Landmark Center, Hotel Commonwealth, Trilogy and 1330 Boylston. Its broad neighborhood and transit descriptions do not establish today’s boundaries or service patterns.
A penalty provision in the original article had a truncated year, written only as “202.” No exact deadline is supplied here. The article’s jobs, tax revenue, future construction and leasing payments remain projections made in 2017.
Historical account attributed to the original Boston City Properties article. Underlying records and later outcomes have not been freshly verified.