That loading dock out front used to attract gulls, until the company installed screeching loudspeakers.
Marcus Partners this week signaled the BPDA it plans to replace the now shuttered Au Bon Pain building on Au Bon Pain in the Flynn Marine Industrial Park in South Boston with a 219,000-square foot life-sciences R&D building.
The current building has a loudspeaker system that cranked out the sounds of distressed seagulls in an attempt to keep the birds away from trucks being loaded with breadstuffs for local delivery.
The letter of intent means Marcus, based on Franklin Street downtown, will soon file detailed plans for the non-sea related building in an industrial park that was once dedicated to sea-based industries.
The BPDA board voted in October to lease the Au Bon Pain parcel and an adjacent site to Marcus for redevelopment.
In its letter, the developer says that while it will tear down the squawking building, it will keep another building on the site up, but transformed into "amenity space" for tenants in the new building. Marcus added it will design the new complex so as to not interfere with the Boston Ship Repair drydock next door, which it notes is one of the marine uses for which the industrial park was originally intended.
Letter of intent (37k PDF).