The Abbey Group have unveiled their plans in Boston’s South End to construct four lab and office buildings at the site of a former “Flower Exchange.”
Visual representation of the new European inspired plaza by The Abbey Group
The Abbey Group is targeting companies who prefer to be located by Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical School. The current design plans show a cluster of four buildings of lab or office space, which would total 1.6 million square feet, and would rise about 200 feet by the Southeast Expressway. The offices would be built with large open floor plans, while restaurants and retail stores would occupy the street level. These buildings would surround a cultural center and plaza Abbey has named “Albany Green.”
“We see it as a sort of European plaza,” stated Bill Keravuori, managing partner at Abbey. “We want to extend public space across the entire ground floor of the project.”
To boost foot traffic, Abbey is hoping to improve the portion of the South Bay Harbor Trail that runs near the property.
The former Flower Exchange building which was purchased by The Abbey Group
The former flower exchange property sits in a piece of the South End that has blossomed with different developments since the city rezoned the area — which was mainly industrial ten years ago — for more housing for Boston citizens. The Ink Block and other spacious residential developments are still under construction, and earlier this month the BPDA approved an apartment complex with roughly 650 units across the street from the former Flower Exchange.
What the neighborhood has lacked, Keravuori notes, is office space to attract companies to move their workforce to the city. The 5.5-acre site is spacious enough for a campus that could compete with Kendall Square, Longwood Medical Area, and the Seaport to attract companies
“It’s not often you get that kind of space to work with in an urban environment like this,” he said. “We’re creating a new place here.”
Original article:<http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/03/15/former-flower-exchange-would-host-huge-biotech-complex/jvy96C9P1ktqszQwmj35kL/story.html>