A developer this week filed formal plans for a 15-story, 411-room hotel at 660 Summer St. in the Flynn Marine Industrial Park.
The Marine Wharf hotel would be split between a Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton, under the proposal submitted by developers Eamon O’Marah and John Matteson of Harbinger Development of Wellesley. The BRA had tentatively designated the company to build a hotel at the site last fall.
O’Marah and Matteson say the project will have benefits beyond simply making money:
The addition of both select-service and extended-stay hotel rooms at an underutilized site that is adjacent to new, more active uses, will support the expansion of the vibrant live, work, and play area that the Seaport District has become. The proposed Project's proximity to Black Falcon Terminal and Cruiseport Boston will place a variety of accommodations within walking distance to the more than 380,000 passengers who use Cruiseport Boston each year.
The Project will activate an underutilized site with enhanced streetscapes that include landscaped sidewalks and improved open spaces. The adjacent parkland owned by EDIC will become newly enlivened by improving its connections to Parcel A and the new pedestrian amenities provided there. New street lighting, signage, plantings, and public seating will enhance the currently under-defined public spaces at both locations.
The developers explain how a hotel will benefit the city's goals of preserving the marine industrial park for marine industrial use:
The Project will provide services to new innovation-oriented economic development and job-growth opportunities in a variety of industries that operate within the Marine Park. The Project will also support the expanding water-dependent operations of Black Falcon Terminal and Cruiseport Boston, particularly with hotel use. In this way, the Project will include uses that are both incidental to and supportive of water-dependent industrial uses in the Marine Park as contemplated by the MIP Master Plan.
In addition to BRA and zoning-commission approval, the project also needs sign off by the Boston Conservation Commission and the state Department of Environment Protection because of its location near the water.
The developer hope to begin two years of construction in mid-2017.
Marine Wharf project notification form (32M PDF).