Rendering by Handel Architects.
Beacon Capital Partners last week filed plans with the BPDA for a ten-story life-sciences lab building on Northern Avenue at Channel Street, next to the similar building it's already constructing there as part of its 4.4-acre South Boston Innovation Campus, where the Seaport turns into the Raymond Flynn Marine Park.
In a formal "notice of of project change," the downtown firm says the second, 321,000-square-foot building will help better connect the Flynn Marine Park to the burgeoning Seaport, in part through improved sidewalks, and will even help the BPDA keep up the maritime identity of the former Marine Industrial Park, if not through the drug development going on inside then through the rents and fees paid to the BPDA subsidiary that is supposed to keep the Flynn land Boston's last main bastion of marine industries.
Its ground rent, associated fees and assessments will provide funding for [the subsidiary] as it improves the infrastructure of the RLFMP. Furthermore, the programming for the Overall Project and its layout of public spaces aligns with the vision in the RLFMP Final Master Plan Update to shift water dependent uses to and towards the waterfront, and to shift mixed and more commercial uses farther away from the water.
The plans call for shifting around the 325 total parking spaces the BPDA originally approved for the project, which included a 70-space lot where the new building would go, with the remaining 255 spaces in a garage under the building already under construction. Instead, Beacon Capital Partners is proposing to put a 200-space garage under the building already under construction, with a second 125-space garage under the proposed building.
The new building would have a ground-floor cafe and some retail space, the plans say.
Beacon Capital says it will pay $4.29 per square foot - or about $1.3 million in total - towards transportation improvements in the area - which it adds it hopes can go towards repaving Channel Street near the new building and putting in new, ADA-compliant sidewalks in that area. Beacon Capital says the building would be " well served by public transportation," in particular by the Silver Line Way station, as well as by Route 4 and 7 bus lines.
The plans estimate that once up and running, the building will have room for up to 1,500 full-time employees.
The company says the new building will have natural-gas boilers, but only for backup and peak loads to supplement the heat pumps it plans to install, which it says will reduce the buildings fossil-fuel use by 90% over a more traditional gas-fired heating and AC system. To meet a goal of zero net carbon emissions, Beacon Capital says it will look to buy "renewable energy credits" for projects offsite. It's also looking at installing solar panels on the roof.
To deal with rising seas and storms dumping more rainwater on the site, which partially sits in a flood plain, the company says it will raise the bottom of the first floor to be at least four feet above the current ground level, with electrical systems starting at five feet above that level. The building will also be surrounded with "permeable pavers" to better absorb water during heavy rains. Also:
Trees and planting areas will counteract urban heat island effect by shading pavement, reducing impervious cover and the interception and slowdown of stormwater. Vegetation will also contribute to better air quality by filtering air pollutants and providing carbon sequestration on site.