Architect's rendering.
Related Beal yesterday filed plans for a complex on what is now a parking lot next to the Gillette plant that would include residences, offices and R&D space.
Also included in its filing with the BPDA: A large berm that could become the first part of a city effort to protect Fort Point and the rest of South Boston behind it from both rising sea levels and potential flooding that could come with the more severe storms that could batter the coast, along a waterway that already floods its surrounding parking lots and walkway at king tides and during large storms.
When not beating back the tides, the berm would be a wide walkway with a seating area along the channel. Related Beal says the berm, the exact design of which is yet to be decided, would be incorporated into a 50-year plan released by the city in 2018 to minimize floodwaters pouring into the channel through a series of berms, sea walls and even grassy dunes. Key to the plan is that all the pieces eventually be built; otherwise the water would just rush around whatever structures have been built.
Related Beal proposed a 17-story, 370-unit residential building, a 13-story, 332,000-square-foot office building and an 8-floor, 400,000 square-foot lab and R&D building on the 6.5 acre parcel, which it bought from Gillette last year. The company is also proposing a roughly 400-space underground garage.
The buildings will be placed to minimize their impact on the Ted Williams Tunnel, which runs under the parcel.
The company says that as part of the project, it would extend Necco Street to Binford Street and Wormwood Street across A Street, as well as create a pedestrian walkway from Necco Street to the Harborwalk. The Harborwalk itself is where Related Beal would put the new berm, but it says that will be designed to make it look more like a natural rolling area with walkways to the path at the top rather than a stark reminder that the area is right at sea level in an era of rising seas.
In addition to the BPDA and various city boards and commissions, the project will need the approval of state environmental regulators due to its location right on the channel.
Related Beal hopes to begin construction in late 2021, with completion in late 2024. When completed, the result will be "a vibrant, 24-hour, mixed-use neighborhood," the company says - despite being located in a city that has long resisted anything actually open 24 hours.
244‐284 A Street project notification form (14.6M PDF).