Starwood Comes to South End
POSSIBLE CORRECTION: An existing BLT owned building in the South End, 333 Ludlow St, looks to be the likely destination for Starwood, not the planned Gateway building.
So the mystery company Malloy was teasing for a move to Stamford recently is Starwood Hotels.
Starwood would move to half of Gateway, a Harbor Point property adjacent to the train station and the Mill River.
The move is slated for 2012 – which would mean the building would probably have to break ground in the immediate future to meet that deadline.
This is the last iteration of the project we’ve seen, although it seems there are some changes that might not be reflected in the renderings. Parking has apparently moved below grade and will incorporate about 500 commuter spaces to absorb whatever changes ultimately come to the station garage. That will most likely be an improvement over the clunky garage hanging off the back in the last set of renderings. 
The project would also include up to 200 housing units on site and an extension of the Mill River greenway – although both of those elements have some points of contention and are still in flux. The city wants more greenway than is currently offered in the Gateway plan and a commitment to a increased percentage of affordable housing. It looks like two of the properties in the footprint still need to be acquired which might be why this portion isn’t fully flushed out.
As one of the commenters on the previous post pointed out, it will be interesting to see if this has any implication on the Harbor Point Hotel, planned for the Phase 1 of construction, albeit yet to go vertical.
8 comments :
This is very good news. Starwood could really be the anchor they need to bring life to their greater plans. It will be interesting to see what will come of the new building design for the office tower and the 200 housing units. I hope we get to see new renderings soon.
There is more to talk about too. If there is another 800,000 in big leases looking to move for sweeter pastures, maybe BLT lands an intown relocation to fill their waterfront buildings. Also, like I said before, hard to imagine BLT moves forward with a waterfront condo-hotel that isn't Starwood branded at this point.
Whats the next step so they can pull permits and start construction?
whats happening with the ritz?
Actually the story was incorrect - the editors didn't let the reporter who actually knew what was going on write the story. Starwood is moving to 333 Ludlow, on the waterfront. It's an existing building on the East Branch of the Harbor, where Antares had its HQ before it crashed and burned. It's not really part of Harbor Point either, though it's owned by the same people.
It's not clear who might be looking at Gateway, but Mayor Malloy hinted at that again in the story, where he talked about ongoing negotiations for 800,000 of leases in the city.
Ritz is on hold until the real estate market improves. Condo market is always the last part to recover, so it could be a while, since that was a big part of the whole plan for both Ritz towers.
re: the incorrect story, there was some inconsistency apparent in the original version because Rell commented that they were going to reuse an existing building. We still don't know who the mystery tenant is!
I believe you're right about 333 Ludlow. I found that as a rumor in earlier stories and it matches up to Rells comments about "renovating the space"
oh. Moving to Ludlow isnt nearly as exciting. Thanks for the correction.
To answer another, my guess is that the ritz project will lie dormant for many years to come. High end condos in small cities (and large ones too) have not faired so well of late. I also think that if BLT is able to land a hotel deal for their waterfront site first, its going to impede on the ability of capelli to get a condo-hotel done unless we have a massive u-turn in RE, which isnt going to happen. Just my two cents.
Lots of stuff oing on at the ritz site today. trucks and they have put some type of green cloth around the area. probably doing that to make it look nice for the parade?
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