t has been announced several times before, but this time Mayor
Thomas Menino said it is for real: Crosstown Center is a go.
The first phase of a $140 million hotel, office, and retail project
that has stumbled several times is set to break ground this year at the
corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue in Lower Roxbury,
city officials and a persistent team of developers said yesterday.
''Some days we thought this would never happen,'' said Menino, standing
near a pile of dirt where environmental remediation has begun. ''Today I'm
pround to announce the financing for the Crosstown project is
secured.''
The occasion yesterday was the completed sale of $42 million in
tax-exempt bonds, which together with about $14 million in city loans and
$2.5 million in private investment will fund the first phase.
Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year on a 175-room
Hampton Inn & Suites hotel, a 650-car garage, and 22,000 square feet
of retail space. The opening is planned for May 1, 2004.
''We broke a major barrier, and we're on our way,'' said Mark Maloney,
director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
Kirk A. Sykes, who leads a team of minority developers that is partners
on the project with developer Corcoran Jennison, said financing became
difficult after Sept. 11, 2001, which coincided with the intended launch
of Crosstown Center.
Boston Connects Inc., the board that controls federal Empowerment Zone
funding, voted to inject a $7 million loan, resuscitating the project. The
Boston Redevelopment Authority and Department of Neighborhood Development
kicked in $5 million, plus land costs and a 65-year lease.
Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a Boston Democrat who has promoted Crosstown,
thanked Menino for putting the city behind an effort to fix up a
neighborhood that had fallen behind economically.
''We knew this corner was significant,'' she said, ''It really does
tell the future of this corridor.''
The site will include a Harbor Trail Park along Melnea Cass,
accommodating bikers and pedestrians and connecting the Longwood Medical
Area to the walkway planned for the perimeter of Boston Harbor. It will
also include a cancer survivors' park, Sykes said.
The 10-story hotel was designed by ADD Inc., an architectural firm
based in Cambridge. Carrying the Hampton Inn & Suites flag of the
Hilton group, the hotel will be operated by Corcoran Jennison Hospitality
and is expected to serve the Boston Medical Center and Boston University
medical area nearby, as well as Northeastern University.
Menino said the first phase of Crosstown Center will create nearly 150
permanent jobs.
Maloney acknowledged that yesterday's event was one of a number of
Crosstown announcements over the last five years.
''When you have a project that takes a long time, you try to celebrate
every milestone,'' he said.
In an announcement last March, officials predicted that Crosstown would
get underway by summer.
But Maloney said Crosstown is now a ''barrier breaker,'' because it is
perhaps the largest minority-owned development in any Empowerment Zone in
the country. The program began during the Clinton administration in an
effort to breathe life back into depressed urban areas.
Sykes said the infusion of city money over the last year allowed the
development team to sell most of their bonds at investment-grade
rates.
An architect, Sykes is president of Primary Group, which is
contributing to the design. His partners in Crosstown Associates are Gary
Jennison, Tom Welch, and Gene Sisco.
Menino called the 6.7-acre site, on two heavily traveled Boston streets
and adjacent to interstate highways 90 and 93, a ''Gateway to Boston.''
The hotel and office buildings will face Massachusetts Avenue but will
have their primary vehicular access on a new private way that will run
from Melnea Cass Boulevard to Albany Street.
Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at mailto:%20tpalmer@globe.com.
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