The Raffles Boston Back Bay Hotel & Residences, a 33 story, mixed-use building set for 40 Trinity Place, broke ground on September 26. The $400 million hotel will be the first North American mixed use property under the Raffles brand—it currently has 14 other hotels in cities across the world.
“The flagship North American property will be a welcoming oasis within the heart of the city, blending Raffles’ sense of adventure, glamour and style, gracious and intuitive hospitality, and thoughtful, locally inspired design with the cosmopolitan charm of the Back Bay,” a release from the hotel states.
The hotel is being developed jointly by Trinity Stuart LLC, which is a partnership between Gary and Jeffrey Saunders of Saunders Hotel Group and developer Jordan Warshaw of the Noannet Group, along with equity partner Cain International. Augmented hospitality group Accor, parent of Raffles Hotel & Resorts, will be the hotel management partner, and $314 million in construction financing has been proved by Madison Realty Capital.
The hotel will feature 147 guest rooms, 146 branded residences, and six food and beverage venues, and will be located adjacent to the Back Bay Orange Line station. Set to open in early 2022, the project will provide more than $22 million in public benefits, seven affordable units on-site, and over $13 million to support additional affordable housing in the city. “Stuart Street will become a much more pleasant street for pedestrians,” Jordan Warshaw, President of the Noannet Group, told the Sun. “The sidewalk will be widened significantly from Trinity Place to Clarendon Street, with new trees planted and wind screens installed as well.”
“Raffles Boston Back Bay Hotel & Residences will create job opportunities for our residents, and improved street and pedestrian connections in the Back Bay,” Mayor Walsh said in the release. “In addition to the creation of seven on-site income-restricted units, the project will provide over $13 million to support affordable housing. I am pleased that Accor chose Boston as its first home in North America for a Raffles Hotel & Residences. I thank all of the partners involved for their vision, hard work and collaboration on this transformational Back Bay project.”
Now that ground has broken on the project, construction management will go into effect. “The traffic barriers for the construction period are now in place on Stuart Street and Trinity Place and have been for about a month,” Warshaw said. “The traffic will be managed this way for the bulk of the construction duration.”
The hotel will feature a two-story sky lobby, a “state-of-the-art” Raffles Spa with a 20-meter indoor pool and fitness club, a rooftop garden terrace and lounge, and meeting and pre-function space, the release states. It continues, “the hotel will boast grand botanical displays throughout the property, and deliver handcrafted personal experiences designed for local guests and International visitors to meet, stay, shop, dine, and celebrate.”
The Residences will feature “pied-a-terre” suites, one-to three bedroom homes, and penthouses. Residents will have priority access to all services provided by the hotel, including “exclusive membership in the company’s guest recognition and loyalty program, which includes VIP status and access to special benefits within the Accor portfolio,” according to the release. There are sixteen gathering spaces ranging from quiet to social, and a number of them will be dedicated to residents only.
“Raffles is one of the most iconic names in the world, while the Back Bay is one of the most iconic neighborhoods in world. In researching potential hotel partners for this project, we became enamoured with everything Raffles stood for,” Warshaw said. Every member of the Accor team, from the CEO to the head of design, shares the Raffles vision of creating beautiful, iconic buildings with warm, friendly service that seamlessly blend into their environments – always timeless, always local, never generic, trendy or stuffy. This project will quite literally write a new story for Boston, bringing Raffles’ fabled heritage and love for adventure, design, art, and culture to our city. We are so grateful to Mayor Walsh, all the elected officials, dedicated Boston and Massachusetts agency staff, along with our valued neighbours here in the Back Bay for collaborating with us on this spectacular development.”