By Dan Murphy
A long-gestating effort to redevelop the Alexandra Hotel building has apparently found a new path forward due to expected state funding, and this latest proposal would not only refresh its historic facade but also keep the existing, five-story height, while dispending with previous plans for a multi-story addition.
The Alexandra Hotel building at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Washington Street.
Alexandra Partners, LLC, which includes developers Jas Bhogal and Thomas Calus, now intends to repurpose the long-neglected, late Gothic building at 1767-1796 Washington St. as a 68-room hotel, with a ground-floor restaurant and café.
The scope of restoration work would include the 100-percent cleaning and repointing of the stone; stone dutchman repairs; reconstruction of the lost pediment details; repair of the cast-iron storefronts; and the repair and replication of the cast-iron balcony, among other proposed exterior enhancements.
According to Alexandra Partners, the ‘design intent’ now includes constructing a building that “elegantly fits into [the ]South End Landmarks District”; that “avoids creating imitative and false sense of historic elements”; that “respects [the] historic nature of the neighborhood” and that emphasizes the existing historical building in its restoration.
The project also includes plans for a fitness room, as well as for bike parking per Boston Transportation Department guidelines.
Since Alexandra Partners purchased the 30,000 square-foot, then-abandoned building for $11 million from the Church of Scientology in 2018, its proposed redevelopment has undergone several iterations.
A 10-story, 150-plus room boutique hotel was approved by the Boston Planning & Development Agency board in March of 2019, but that plan was ultimately scrapped when the pandemic struck.
The project was later reimagined as ‘Alexandra Residences,’ a 13-story, mixed-use development with ground floor restaurant and café space, a rooftop level bar/restaurant, and around 70 condo units. It then transitioned to a proposed 13-story, 150-room hotel, with ground-floor retail and a rooftop lounge.
Both of these plans would’ve far exceeded the 70-foot height limit for new construction in the South End Landmark District, however, which was a major sticking point for some neighbors and other stakeholders.
The project’s newest lease on life as a five-story hotel came via an economic development bill, signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey last November, which included a line item specifically allocating $6 million for the restoration of Alexandra façade.
Attorney Marc LaCasse, who described the Alexandra redevelopment as having “more lives than Morris the Cat,” said this funding coming through was the “big project changer.”
The whole need for the proposed addition was to help underwrite the cost of rehabilitating the existing five-story building, LaCasse told this reporter during a March 10 phone call, and with that restoration cost now being covered via the expected state funding, he said the addition is no longer necessary for the project to move forward.
And while the project still needs to garner a requested change from the BPDA to remove the proposed addition from the project design, as well as another approval from the city’s Inspectional Services Department, before funding becomes available, LaCasse said he is optimistic on both counts.
Moreover, LaCasse said when the latest plan was unveiled during an advisory review at the South End Landmark District Commission’s March 4 virtual public hearing, feedback heard from commissioners, as well as during public testimony, was universally positive.