New life for old plans to revive the long-empty Alexandra Hotel
Plans to convert the long-abandoned hotel on Mass. Ave. into condos just cleared their final city approval. Next up? Financing.
Arthur F. “Bud” Larievy III used to walk past the long-dilapidated Alexandra Hotel at the corner of Massachusetts Ave. and Washington Street with a sense of longing, of sadness, of nostalgia.
Now, there’s a sense of hope.
“It’s remarkable, because people weren’t sure it would ever be done,” said Larievy, who serves as president of Washington Gateway Main Street, a nonprofit neighborhood and business development group that’s long advocated for restoring the historic building on the border of the South End and Roxbury.
The 1875 building has had multiple owners and many years of failed development proposals, its upper floors sitting empty since the hotel closed in the 1970s. But Alexandra Partners LLC, the latest team vying to revive it, has just cleared its final hurdle in a labyrinthine development-review process.
They can now move forward with the project — starting construction drawings, seeking financing — with the goal of beginning construction next summer, said Jas Bhogal, one of the developers.
“This is going to be an icon restored,” Bhogal said.
The plan is to preserve the five-story property’s existing historic facade and build a 13-story condominium building behind it. Of the 70 condos planned, 10 will be set aside for buyers with lower-and-moderate incomes, and another 19 will be compact units. All told, the development is estimated to cost around $69 million, including around $8.4 million for the facade restoration.
Bhogal and development partner Thomas Calus originally pitched a 150-room boutique hotel there in 2018, and closed a year later on an $11 million deal to buy the building from the Church of Scientology of Boston Inc. The Church of Scientology had owned it for a decade, planning a local headquarters there, but never broke ground. The new development team was ready to go with a hotel. Then came COVID.
“The pause button worked for awhile,” said Marc LaCasse, an attorney representing Alexandra Partners LLC. “Then it was clear that building a hotel was not going to be something that happened anytime soon.”
The developers floated the property for sale, but got no takers. Then they came back to city officials last July with a plan for condos. The total unit mix fluctuated following visits to the Zoning Board of Appeal, but now with a final approval from the South End Landmarks Commission, the 70-unit figure is set.
Bhogal and Calus built the 10 Farnsworth luxury condo project in Fort Point, and have existing relationships with lenders and contractors. Bhogal’s hoping to build on those relationships for a new project. Some lenders have shown interest — but, Bhogal acknowledges, there are potentially some rocky economic times ahead.
“That’s ideally a good time to build, when there’s a downturn, because you want to come out of the other side as a completed project when the downturn’s over,” Bhogal said. “There are lenders who do understand that these markets are cyclical. The demand for condos in Boston has always been there. It’s one of those markets where the under production of homes has always kept the need for housing higher.”
Pricing for the condos — at least, in today’s dollars — will range from around $400,000 to $450,000 for compact units (which average around 450 square feet) up to $1.5 million for larger two-bedroom units on upper floors. Beyond condos, developers plan 3,350 square feet of commercial/retail space in the existing Alexandra Hotel property, along with a cafe next door.
While some neighbors expressed concerns about the building’s height, Washington Gateway Main Street did a survey of nearby businesses surrounding the project and found what the group described as “overwhelming support.” There’s hope for an economic jumpstart that a condo project can bring, especially after losing nine local businesses in the immediate vicinity of the Alexandra — and the continuing crises at Mass. and Cass. less than half a mile away.
Bringing the Alexandra Hotel back to life “would mean everything,” said Michael Sanchez, executive director of Washington Gateway Main Street.
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