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New hotel could help transform Dudley Square but will carry South End name

Proposed Roxbury hotel

Proposed Roxbury hotel.

The Boston Licensing Board could decide next week whether to grant a Roxbury-specific liquor license to the impending Residence Inn by Marriott South End Boston - and to new hotels downtown and in the actual South End.

The new six-story, 135-room Marriott will be at Washington Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard; ground could be broken by year's end, with construction expected to take a year.

Among those who spoke in favor of it getting a full liquor license at a board hearing today was City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury), who called it a "transformative project" for the Dudley Square area. He noted hotel operators have agreed to set minimum hourly wages at $18 and to spend $400,000 on a training program "for a neighborhood that can sorely use it."

The hotel's attorney, Karen Simao, added that, in general, Boston has a desperate need for new hotel rooms.

If granted, the hotel would get a Roxbury-specific license that it would have to return to the city should it go out of business. The board has a total of 20 of these licenses to dole out in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and various "Main Street" districts.

In contrast, a proposed hotel on Beverly Street, near North Station, is seeking one of five "unrestricted" licenses, which become assets that can be borrowed against or sold, to service a proposed 241-seat bistro-style restaurant, meeting rooms and guests.

Simao said the public need for the hotel is partly because of Boston's shortage of hotel space - especially near North Station. Simao said Boston is now losing visitors to hotels in Cambridge and Somerville because people coming here for events at the Garden can't find a nearby place to stay.

But her partner, Stephen Miller, added another public need: Developer Related Beal will use profits from the hotel to support the adjoining $250-million affordable-housing building now under construction. In stark contrast to all the other development around North Station, that 239-unit project will be entirely aimed at people who are not wealthy.

The board will have to decide whether the third hotel, a 200-room AC Hotel by Marriott on Albany Street near the Ink Block, will need an unrestricted license or whether it can get a neighborhood-specific one because of its proximity to the Washington Gateway Main Streets area.

As with the other two hotels, Simao, said the public need for a liquor license is partly because "we desperately need more hotels and hotel rooms" in Boston. But also, that section of the South End is particularly bereft of hotel rooms, she said.

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Comments

What will happen to the park that is there? If I am reading this correctly the hotel will go right where the park is. Are we building at the expense of your public parks?

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I assumed it to be the opposite corner, the fenced off lot. I've been by many times just haven't given it a second look in a while.

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Right next to Jim Rice Field?

This one?

(Link goes to google maps street view)

It's completely fenced in, I wonder if the owner is listed on the Assessing maps of the CIty?

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Never mind that either the Bunker Hill Monument or Bunker Hill Community College would be a long and unpleasant walk from that hotel.

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They did get the "Bunker" part right.

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which was right next to the Old Boston Garden. The O'Neill Federal Building occupies that site today.

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I remember watching the implosion on Ch. 7.

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Looks like a 1960's brutalist style dorm at U. Mass. Lowell.

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Nice Fox Hall vibe. 7 floors in a 4 floor foundation.

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Wait. Is Marriott aware that Dudley Square is in Roxbury? Why don't they admit that instead of hiding behind the name "South End" ?

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I reckon because they want business and/or they are part of a larger plan to encroach on and rename parts of Roxbury.

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That's really misleading. People from out of town might say to themselves "Oh, I've heard the South End is nice and conveniently located." Then they get there and...WTF?

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Just like all the "Boston" hotels conveniently located a dozen miles or more outside the city limits.

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I'm fine with the site. Fine with the name. Fine (actually quite pleased) with the $18 hourly wage. Fine with the size.

But for the love of John Winthrop, could they just make it a little bit less ugly? I say this as a Marriott gold rewards member, who had seen a wide variety of their properties. They can (and should) do better.

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Indeed, it's just off the Brookline line!

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Interesting that they want to do a Residence Inn -- maybe catching some of the medical tourism market for BMC? If I was staying for a week to get care, I'd definitely rather stay in Dudley, which is a little further away but doesn't have the constant ambulance issues of the Hampton Inn or the Best Western or whatever went into that silo building. Plus Dudley has actual people hanging out, not just a parade of junkies, so it feels a little safer.

There is absolutely a hotel shortage in this town, though, it's brutal. Paying 160 a night for a holiday inn in flipping Dedham - urgh.

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How dare you claim we need more hotels when the two which are already located on Melnea Cass are more than underutilized due to the FACT that the METHADONE CLINIC and City Hospital are directly across the street. Which they knew before they put the Hampton Inn (which is a black business!) at that location! All those dope feins are driving/killing away business from the area!! And then the Liquor Licenses, smdh, so everything Diane Wilkerson and Chuck Turner went through is just in vain? HOW DARE YOU TITO!! I don't know how your still in your position because I don't know anyone who votes for you! And you can take that South End crap and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. STOP TRYING TO DESTROY ROXBURY by making it smaller and smaller every chance you get. Roxbury has already been pushed back to Me one a Cass because we all know Roxbury used to extend all the way to Cathedral Projects! Stop it. Just flipping stop it already!

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..or what is left of it.

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