A notice of project change (NPC) and amendment to the planned development area of the Parcel 9 – Haymarket Hotel project calls for an increase of the building’s maximum height from 65 to 69.5 feet.
The developer, an affiliate of CV Properties, Olshan Properties and Harbinger Development, has proposed the construction of an approximately 225-room hotel with 9,600 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The project also includes a one-story, 1,800-square-feet restaurant on Hanover Street and a 1,615-square-feet space on Blackstone Street to be leased to the Haymarket Pushcart Association.
The height changed was proposed solely in order to achieve acceptable floor-to-ceiling heights within the building, according to the NPC.
“Our advancement of the design plans for the hotel revealed that this small increase in height was necessary and consistent with the anticipated hotel brand strategy,” read the NPC.
Parcel 9 has been owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation since the agency invoked eminent domain just prior to Boston’s Big Dig. Development on the parcel has been stymied in the past by disagreements about height.
Victor Brogna, Chair of the North End/Waterfront Residents’ Association Zoning, Licensing and Construction Committee, said he raised objections to a previous proposal from the developer to raise the hotel’s height to 103 feet.
“The thing I was concerned about was view corridors to the Blackstone Street block, which is all kinds of historical districts, state and federal,” he said.
That proposal also attracted the attentions of the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC), which argued that the proposal violated the area’s Joint Development Guidelines (JDG). The JDG limits the height of new construction on Parcel 9 to between 55 and 65 feet.
Brogna said he would be happy to go along with the proposal if MHC does.
MHC has not yet received a determination of effect from the Federal Highway Administration, and are therefore not able to address questions concerning the project, said an MHC spokesperson.
The NPC-filing began a 45-day comment period, which ends April 2, 2018. You can submit your comments to the Boston Planning & Development Agency here.
