Is Hotel Alexandra Coming Back?
The recent completion of the AC Hotel at Ink Block, combined with the current renovations at 40 Berkeley and the upcoming preservation of the Alexandra Hotel – marks the resurgence of the hotel market in the South End. While these are just a few hotel developments in the city, their magnitude indicates that there is an increase demand for boutique hotels in this neighborhood.
Along with the South End, Boston’s Seaport is currently undergoing a dramatic hotel renaissance. Projects right now include 3 under construction and another 2 in the planning / permitting phase.
With 3,094 hotel rooms currently under construction, and another 2,839 planned, the hotel industry in Boston is set to explode.
A decrepit, long abandoned structure could be reborn as a 100 foot tall hotel in the South End, as developers look to preserve its historic facade while building above current height limits.
Developers JB Ventures are looking to turn the Alexandra Hotel on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Washington Street, which has been vacant for decades, into a new hotel, according to designs they showed at a South End Landmarks Commission meeting yesterday. The developers have the property under agreement with the current owner, the Church of Scientology.
The developers’ proposal would retain and restore the building’s six-story, 65 foot facade along both Washington Street and Mass. Ave., but would rip out the rest of the structure and build a new nine-story, 107 foot tall hotel with a roof deck and a cafe on the first floor. The hotel would have 148 keys, for “boutique” rooms ranging from 150 to 200 square feet, and no parking spaces.
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