By | Boston Globe | August 12, 2020
It’s another sign of continued confidence in Boston’s housing market, despite the pandemic
The Midtown Hotel could soon be no more.
Developers on Wednesday filed plans with the city to tear down the mid-century motor inn on Huntington Avenue and replace it with a 10-story apartment building.
Newton-based National Development, which took over the property under a long-term lease with First Church of Christ, Scientist in March, said it aims to put 325 apartments and street-level retail on the site of the hotel. It also promised to make improvements to Huntington Avenue across from the Christian Science Plaza, where the Back Bay, South End and Fenway all meet.
A letter delivered to the Boston Planning & Development Agency was a preliminary step; more detailed plans and images are likely in the coming weeks, followed by rounds of community meetings and public review. A groundbreaking would probably be at least a year away. Indeed, National plans to lease the 159-room Midtown to Northeastern University for student housing this academic year.
But the move is another show of long-term confidence in Boston’s housing market from a veteran local developer. While development proposals basically stopped for several months at the start of the pandemic, a growing number have landed at the BPDA in recent weeks, a sign that developers believe that by the time these buildings open — probably at least three years from now in the Midtown project’s case — the demand for places to live and work in Boston’s core will have recovered.
It’s also the latest in a string of developments to reshape the area around the historic Christian Science Plaza. The church has sold several parcels — most prominently the one that’s now home to the One Dalton tower — to builders over the last decade or so.
Terms of its deal with National have not been made public.
