4/14/99
Beacon Capital Partners, a real estate investment trust with a portfolio that includes 1.5 million square feet in Kendall Square, has purchased Fort Point Place -- a quartet of historic brick warehouse buildings totaling 335,000 square feet in the Fort Point neighborhood. The purchase price is reported at $24.5 million ($72.50 per square foot). Beacon Capital CEO Alan Levinthal is known in Boston as the son of developer Norman Levinthal (Post Office Square, City Hall Plaza Trust, Rowes Wharf Hotel).
The Fort Point Place buildings and their landmark brick smokestack have long-provided inspiration for the Fort Point creative community as a lasting symbol of the area's turn-of-the-century industrial heyday. The properties have also been identified in the Boston Redevelopment Authority's Public Realm Plan as the focal point of residential development for the mixed-use district.
SAND Comment
SAND expects Beacon Capital to work with the BRA and South Boston's Fort Point artist community to develop Fort Point Place as residential studios and apartments with a mix of affordabilities -- not exclusively for office or upscale residential occupancy.
Many artists have been displaced from Fort Point due to high demand for area real estate, and a significant number of artists in Fort Point hold leases which expire in 3-4 years. SAND has worked closely with the Fort Point Artists Community to understand these concerns and to achieve a balance of area expansion with artist housing needs.
Project representative Robert Walsh has contacted SAND and indicated the developer's intent to do a "straight conversion" of Fort Point Place to residential use. Mr. Walsh also indicated that the City's required affordability component will be achieved on-site.
SAND will be hosting a public meeting with the Fort Point Place project developer and representatives in early May. The date is currently being scheduled and will be posted on the SAND website calendar.
Your comments as a visitor to the SAND website would be appreciated and forwarded for discussion.