At long last, Boston Flower Exchange buyer revealed
Its new owners see a big tech opportunity.
The long mystery of who agreed to buy the Boston Flower Exchange in the South End has been settled.
The Abbey Group was confirmed as the buyer of the 5.6-acre parcel in a quickly developing part of Boston at a City Council meeting Thursday. The news verifies a February report that cited unnamed sources from real estate publication The Real Reporter.
The Abbey Group, which has an ownership stake in the Boston Celtics, has a long history of Boston development. Its work has included Landmark Center near Fenway Park, which the company sold earlier this decade.
The flower market’s owners voted to sell the property last May, without any public word of who had agreed to buy it for more than a year. The deal has not yet closed.
Speaking to the council, Abbey Group founder David Epstein said it would be “presumptuous” to offer much detail of the company’s plans prior to taking community input. But he said he saw an opportunity to create “a real dynamic commercial campus,” with “new technology businesses.”
He said the area could be “a viable alternative to, particularly, Kendall Square. Because we’d like to get companies from Kendall Square into the South End and Boston, but also attract new companies as well.”
The development could include open public space, as well as retail and residential construction. Epstein stressed that the residential aspect was far from certain at this point.
The property is located near recent developments like the mixed-use Ink Block project and the Troy Boston residences, as well as the South Bay shopping plaza, which is also slated for a revamp.
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