A bigger, bolder plan for Herald site

Stores, restaurants, 475 apartments envisioned on key South End block

February 02, 2012|By Casey Ross, Globe Staff

The Boston Herald’s newly vacated South End headquarters, its reporters gone and its printing presses shuttered, is slated to be transformed into the “Ink Block,’’ a six-acre complex of apartments, stores, and restaurants.

The property’s new owner, National Development, yesterday outlined a plan to replace the Herald’s squat brick building with four new structures containing 475 apartments, a grocery store, and a mix of smaller shops and restaurants.

The proposal came days after the tabloid moved its offices to the Seaport District and began paying The Boston Globe to print and distribute its newspapers circulated in the Boston area.

National Development’s plan is a vast departure from an earlier proposal for a smaller project that neighbors panned as uninspired and too suburban.

The new version calls for buildings from five to nine stories, with each designed to have its own modern flair, featuring facades clad in glass, brick, and metal.

“This project has to make a bold statement to get development in this area started,’’ Ted Tye, a managing partner at National Development, said in a presentation to the Globe. “We are the first piece of development in an emerging part of the South End, so people wanted us to be aggressive.’’

The revamped plan would also move 400 parking spaces to the interior of the site, where they would be hidden by the buildings.

National Development will soon file a detailed plan with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, kicking off a permitting process that is likely to take several months. Tye said he hopes to start construction by the end of the year.

National Development has built several large projects in Greater Boston, including the Marriott Residence Inn in Charlestown and the Station Landing residential and retail development in Medford. It is also part of a joint venture that is developing the Kensington, a 27-story residential tower under construction in Chinatown.

The Ink Block project would be one of the largest residential developments in the city and would be built on of its few large tracts of buildable land. Only the South Boston Waterfront boasts bigger commercial construction opportunities, with several mixed-use projects being planned.

Tye said the Ink Block project would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, although he declined to be specific.

The project picked up speed after the Herald moved to Fargo Street in South Boston.

The newspaper’s publisher, Patrick Purcell, is a minority investor in National Development’s effort to revitalize his former South End property.

So far, the revamped plan is generating support from neighbors who hope it will become the centerpiece of a new district with residences, stores, and offices.