The aging industrial building on the corner of Porter and Orleans Street was supposed to be one of Paul Roiff’s signature boutique hotels, complete with extended stay rooms for business travelers and a restaurant.
However, Roiff, known for high end hotels and restaurants throughout Boston, later sold the Boston Planning and Development Agency-approved project to the Patel family for $14.75 million.
The Patels, known for operating and managing several area hotels, planned to continue Roiff’s original vision but for nearly five years the project has stalled and the building has become a dilapidated, boarded-up eyesore in the community.
However, at Monday night’s Gove Street Citizens Association (GSCA) meeting, Ashok Patel and his attorney, Richard Lynds, said they were happy to announce preliminary work has begun on the building after years of delays.
“If you live in and around the area, you’ve seen a bit of activity recently happening and I’m sure people will be happy to hear that we have started work on the building in preparation for the full construction,” said Lynds. “Windows are being installed and the goal here is to remove all of the temporary plywood and sheathing that has been used to essentially protect the interior of the building. I know this is a long process and certainly the process itself has not been the most efficient with COVID and other hiccups along the road with the city permitting process. But I can assure you my client has remained committed to getting this project done and getting it up and running, hopefully relatively soon.”
Lynds said work will involve a complete rehabilitation and restoration of the existing commercial structure.
“We are not expanding the footprint of the building and the building will stay exactly as is,” said Lynds. “All of the work that is being performed (after the windows are installed) will be done on the interior and the roof.”
Lynds said part of the process and certainly part of the delay in getting this to where it needed to be involved the telecommunications equipment on the building.
The Patels were forced to enter into lengthy negotiations with the telecommunication companies to move these antennas to another part of the roof. When dealing with the relocation of telecommunication antennas there is very complicated and legal choreography that has to occur before one can move forward. Because moving these antennas causes a disruption in service there were a whole host of issues that came with that. These antennas are part of an old telecommunication easement and could not be evicted from the building because the companies own the space that occupies the building’s roof.
Lynds said once construction is completed the space will operate as a 123 room hotel with 65 surface parking spaces located immediately adjacent to the building with access from both Orleans and Frankfurt Streets.
“The ground level of this building will include a full service restaurant and lounge that is not just available to the hotel guests but also available to the general public as well,” said Lynds
Lynds said the project is expected to create 150 construction jobs over the course of construction as well as 20 new permanent full time jobs.
As far as mitigation the Patels plan to commit $10,000 towards the repairs of the Porter Street Bridge, access to the hotel’s parking lots during snow emergencies, and pay for the costs associated with running Zoom meetings for the GSCA so they can continue holding meetings online.
The Patels also want to offer space at the hotel for the GSCA to host monthly meetings rather than at the community room at Logan’s Rental Car Facility.
“We will offer the use of the conference room or small function room for GSCA meetings,” said Lynds. “I know you have access to the rental car facility but this might be an option that is a little more centrally located in the Gove Street neighborhood.”
The Patels are also planning on contributing $5,000 a year for 10 years towards the cost of regular maintenance for the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway.
“Essentially what we’ll be doing is putting those funds towards either the Boston Natural Areas Network, the Friends of the Mary Ellen Welch Greenway or some organization that takes on responsibility of stewardship for the Greenway,” said Lynds. “We want to make sure that we are providing and being a good neighbor when it comes to access to that resource.”