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New Fenway hotel would create a 'vibrant corner' out of what is now a lowly gas station, developer says

Architect's rendering of 1241 Boylston St.

Architect's rendering of new Fenway hotel.

OTO Development of Spartanburg, SC, has filed plans with the BPDA for a 184-room, eight-story hotel on the site of what is now a Shell station at Boylston and Ipswich streets in the Fenway.

The proposal also calls for a 4,600-square-foot restaurant and an 82-space parking garage, as well as wider sidewalks with street trees.

The Project will contribute significantly to the ongoing revitalization of this central Boston district. Today, the site is underutilized: it contains a gas station surrounded by impervious paving, featuring four curb cuts and no landscaping. This use and configuration result in constant vehicular activity, making this corner of Boylston Street pedestrian-unfriendly. The Project includes the demolition of the existing buildings and removal of underground storage tanks, and will improve the underutilized site with a striking, first-class new hospitality facility that incorporates active street-level uses and landscaped sidewalks to enhance the pedestrian experience along Boylston and Ipswich streets. ...

With the Project site, the Proponent saw an opportunity to improve an underutilized site in the Fenway neighborhood and create a new edge to a signature piece of the Emerald Necklace at the Victory Gardens. In looking at early design and building schemes, it was quickly determined that the building has an opportunity to respond to the multiple adjacent conditions and uses. by referencing and blending the residential, parkland, and vibrant commercial adjacencies, the building can become a strong corner that grounds the area while keeping within the parameters of the Fenway neighborhood zoning. The Project, with its zoning compliant height, will serve as a transition between the smaller residential buildings to the east of the site and the recent, taller developments to the west.

1241 Boylston St. project-notification form (37M PDF).

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Comments

Another out of town asshole who will just throw a few bucks in either a brown paper bag or a similar donation to Mahty for Mayah and boom! Instant hotel!

And when this idiot pontificates about the blight on Boylston does he think to include that shithole The Verb?

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Are you implying that a gas station is a better use of this property than a hotel with a restaurant? Gas stations are closing all over Boston because they are one of the biggest wastes of space you can have in a city. Hotels are in demand. Gas stations are not. And The Verb contains Hojoko, which is a great spot.

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To say nothing of the fact that more hotel rooms in Boston means

(a) downward pressure on price, good for local businesses,
(b) downward pressure on price, bad for Air BnBs in Boston -- which is good for moving a few units back to the traditional rental housing market, and
(c) fewer jabronis staying in "Boston" 25 miles away and driving back and forth every day.

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I don't own a car in Boston, but plenty of people do, and it's nice to be able to fill your tank close enough to your house that the tank is still full when you park for the night. So the question now becomes, how far away is the next gas station? And without a lot of competition for the few stations that remain, how much is the gas going to cost compared to places where a couple of stations are facing each other?

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Do you know where this gas station is? There happens to be another gas station directly across the street from it.

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Trover, is that you?

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The next gas station that I can think of on Boylston is in Brookline, by the Brookline Village T stop.

The next nearest gas station is the one on Commonwealth and Amory by Boston University's College of Fine Arts.

And not everyone who uses gas has a car. My husband Vespa-ed around Boston for years, he still needed gas every 100 miles or so.

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Cross the river on the BU bridge and there is one very soon on Memorial Drive, and then the others of Tsarnaev fame.

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Unless that is also part of the "revitalization" of the area, in which case you are talking probably Huntington at South Huntington or down by the Methadone Mile, with another station up Albany Street.

As some would say, property owners can decide that their gas station will no longer be a gas station, but I agree with you that at some point the supply lines get stretched thin. Of course, Kinopio wants to ban automobiles from the entire city, so of course he is cheering this proposal.

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There's a gas station across the street from this site. I was thinking about that one, which I used to use frequently, as opposed to the one that will be torn down as part of this plan. I keep on forgetting about that one, which means I will not morn the closing of it.

I should really research things like this more fully.

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As someone who lives in the city, I know that I don't need to fill my tank 30 feet from where I live. Somehow, filling up when I'm outside the city magically saves me money, and filling up 10 miles away burns up less than half a gallon and my gas gauge still points to F when I lay down for the night.

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Try running low on gas on Boylston and Fairfield. Where there used to be a gas station. Or at Charles Circle. Where there used to be a gas station. Or off Storrow, where your closest choice is either on Mem Drive or the Speedway at North Harvard.

Oh, but we need more hotels at Fenway.Take a look at bookings in Jan and Feb. See how many sold out nights you find at some hotels.

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Most cars have them - at least have working ones.

More modern cars will actually NAG you to get fuel. Some will beep repeatedly until you get fuel once you are within 10-20 miles of an end of the tank.

Sorry, but if you are too impaired to keep track of your fuel status within 10 miles of empty, maybe the MBTA is for you?

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What do you do when the client has you going in the car all day, doesn't tell you when their meeting is going to be over and you're watching that gas gauge at the corner of High and Oliver praying you can make it over to Mass Ave or City Square and get back before his meeting is over?

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This is basic grownup territory. Not running out of fuel is Driving 101. Sort out a way to tell your client that you have to get fuel. Or keep a can in your trunk. I used to do that with my first diesel vehicle.

The world doesn't have to cater or conform to your narrow needs and inability to plan ahead with extraneous specific infrastructure.

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when did I ask the world to conform to my narrow needs? And if I had followed your advice, I would not have enjoyed a thirty year career as an executive chauffeur. And a can? You think a CEO wants his Tumi luggage to smell like gas?Or his wife's Birkin Bag?

Now can i give you advice on how to deal with the challenges of your occupation?

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when did I ask the world to conform to my narrow needs?

Just now, when you demanded that there be car infrastructure directly where you had your car.

I'd love to see you be so inattentive in some of the places that I've driven. Can't whine to AAA when you are 200 miles from the nearest gas station and unlikely to see a car come by for many hours, hon.

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but I made no "demand" of anything. Also, I did not ask to hear your driving credentials, I asked if I could give you advice on the challenges of your job, remember?

Hon...

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Big Bend and most of west Texas are like this. I've never felt so truly alone in the world more than when I've driven around there.

There're 3 gas stations on that stretch of Boylston, another just beyond at Mass Ave and Columbus, or after you get to Brookline. The only downside is that this intersection is already a clusterfuck with the red left turn clogging 1/2 the of traffic coming in, and every Uber/Lyft/Taxi is stopping to look for fares. Giving people more reason to making bad turns from the other side just makes me want to avoid that area more.

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There are literally two gas stations within a mile of High & Oliver (three in a 1.2 miles). There are 5 with in a mile of the gas station being talked about in this article (including one directly across the street).

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I don't want more tall buildings fucking up the wind flow in Fenway.

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So tired of the f word.

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I don't think I've read one post by you that doesn't sound like it's coming from a miserable, angry individual. Seek help.

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The latest thing that has garnered my ire is the fact that I seem to be the only one on this site that kicked in twenty bucks for the poor kid whose head got blown off near Morton and Blue on Christmas Eve. You know, so his family could give him a homegoing?

Too bad the kid wasn't shot riding his bike in the bike lane at the corner of Mass and Beacon by a truck driver with multiple moving violations previously.

And if you really want to see my anger live, I'll be interviewing Bob Massie on the Young Jurks program this Saturday at six on WEMFRadio.com. Call in and tell me how much of an asshole I am or watch me on Facebook live!

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Way to use the murder of a kid to make yourself look good. Classy.

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to you?

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Adam's original post gave all the information necessary for anyone wishing to make a contribution. There is no requirement for contributors to publicize their actions on UHub. Your completely gratuitous comment that you contributed, asking "anyone else?" seems designed solely to enlarge the pool of people whom you think you are entitled to call "asshole".

A question: while I have no intention of listening to your radio show, I am wondering who besides you and Bob Massie will be on, to justify the word "Young" in the title?

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then why bother asking? And how much did you donate?

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Don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back. Great job donating $20, but you have no fucking clue what charities others on this board support.

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given the general tone of your responses to my posts, are you sure you're not the one who needs help? Little obsessive, no?

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Make a complaint about parking or how its just another out-of-context box!

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This might be "another out of town asshole" but the seller (Shell & Saudi Aramco) is also an out of town asshole who bought the property from another out of town asshole, that being Texaco, Inc.

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...to claim this will adversely impact the community garden to the east.

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It is definitely about 4 stories higher than anything around it and will add more wind to an already windy-as-hell stretch of Boylston. I'd support it if they lop off a few stories so it will fit with the surrounding buildings of the neighborhood.

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The building maybe 100' down the street, just past the baseball tavern is a good deal taller than this already. Not to mention whatever happens with the Trans National tower proposal.

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Apparently this is an as-of-right project, meaning it's within zoning guidelines, so there won't be a lot of listening going on.

Sounds like a great project! What a great use for the property. Kind of a tight, messy corner but how much worse can it be than a gas station? Or, a more-appropriate description, parking lot where they sometimes sell gas.

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The residential right next door is 5 stories (and slightly elevated from the street) so this is really like, 2.5 higher than its next door neighbor. And it looks like the top floors are offset, so from the sidewalk it'll give the impression of 6 stories. Add in what looks to be actual brick and this may ACTUALLY look like it belongs in the neighborhood, a fun rarity!

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It' rapidly becoming impossible to open the kind of small family owned restaurant that sustained Boston neighborhoods for generations. If available spaces are going to require rents in the tens of thousands of dollars per month - plus a couple of million for startup - the only thing we'll ever see is corporate 'restaurant groups' entering the market. We've made a city where a guy needs to sell his soul to VC investors to sell a plate of pasta.

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The Seaport sucks for restaurants for reasons you have mentioned but Fenway is crushing it when it comes to good food and drink spots.

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Oh my God! For once I agree with you. Hell has frozen over!

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Please come show me the 4800+ sf restaurant in JP, Roslindale, Hyde Park or West Roxbury... Big tourist area needs big restaurants, especially as the Fenway owners make that more and more of a three season complex with concerts, football games, etc... on off dates.

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Is this the spot right next to where they want to build a new arts academy? If so, How does that play into this?

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They're separated by an alley.

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Those plans are acknowledged in the filing

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we neighborhood folk won't have any place to get our cars fixed, as this will take away our last service station - the station across the street only sells gas

and wow the tone of the dialogue in this comment section is shockingly nasty - whyzzat?

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