BOSTON—Skanska USA has been busy indeed in the City of Boston. The firm held a ceremony last week to officially launch the start of construction on its residential tower project at 1350 Boylston St. in the Fenway district.

The 17-story, 183,000-square-foot residential tower was approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Dec. 20, 2013. The project, which is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2017, will feature 212 apartments and 7,008-square-feet of ground-floor retail space. The Boylston St, project is Skanska's fifth in the Greater Boston area.

At the time the project was approved by the BRA, the authority estimated the project's value at $102 million.

On Thursday, Skanska USA officials joined Boston Mayor Martin Walsh at a ceremony at the Boston Arts Academy to officially announce the start of construction of the 1350 Boylston St. project. Skanska is already building Watermark Seaport, a 300,000-square-foot, LEED Gold residential building with ground-floor retail, as well as 101 Seaport and 121 Seaport, two neighboring office towers with ground floor retail.

At the event with Mayor Walsh, Skanska officials announced the firm was making a $10,000 donation to Boston Arts Academy, the city's only public high school for the visual and performing arts.

"I thank Skanska for not only being a leader in the development community, but also for their commitment and investment in our local community," states Mayor Walsh. "Their commitment to supporting arts education in the Boston Public Schools builds upon our vision of ensuring a future where art will play a pivotal role in Boston's cultural landscape, and their commitment to creating additional housing will bring residents closer to the great cultural and educational institutions in the Fenway neighborhood."

"We wanted to do something meaningful with a direct impact on The Fenway community to celebrate 1350 Boylston's groundbreaking," states Charles Leatherbee, vice president of Skanska USA Commercial Development. "We believe in BAA's mission and are proud to support their commitment of educating Boston's youth in the arts."

The event closed out a very busy 2015 for Skanska. In November, Skanska announced it would be relocating its Boston operations from 253 Summer St. in Fort Point to its recently completed 101 Seaport Blvd. office tower.

The developer signed a more than 28,000-square-foot lease at the 17-story, 440,000-square-foot office tower. The company will be occupying space on the second floor of the building that also includes 20,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. Skanska at the time of the announcement said it expected to take occupancy of its new space by the end of this year.

Skanska also reported last month it executed a 15,000-square-foot lease with Red Thread and Steelcase, which brought the property to 91% leased. Anchor tenant PricewaterhouseCoopers has relocated its Northeast headquarters from the Financial District to the 101 Seaport building and occupies approximately 75% of the office building or 330,000 square feet.

Skanska also developed 150 Second Street, a lab and office building in Cambridge, MA. The building was completed in late 2012 and sold in December 2013 to Alexandria Real Estate Equities for $94.5 million.