"Fan Pier is a very important development site in our city and we have great confidence in Mass Mutual and the Fallon Company to get the job done," Susan Elsbree, with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, tells GlobeSt.com.Elsbree says the city expects to sit down with partnership members within the next few weeks to discuss plans for the site.
"They have expressed a very ambitious schedule in terms of getting the first pieces moving," Elsbree says. They want to have an architect on board very soon and begin construction as soon as they can." She notes that construction on the project should begin by next year.
While a sales price for the property was not disclosed, a source familiar with the deal confirmed to GlobeSt.com that the new owners paid around $115 million for the parcel. The price was $10 million less than the offers accepted by the Pritzker family last year.
Fallon, who is developing a 465-unit luxury apartment complex in the Seaport District near the Fan Pier site, did not return phone calls from GlobeSt.com seeking comment. In a statement issued shortly after the announcement, however, Fallon said that the partnership intends to hire an architect within the next 30 days to begin design on the first commercial buildings for Fan Pier.
Elsbree says the city expects that the new owners will follow a master plan approved by the city three years ago that allows for the creation of 3 million sf of mixed-use space along nine city blocks that includes a harborwalk, new marina, a children's museum and civic space. The city has been at loggerheads with the Pritzker family over the development of Fan Pier for years but the issue came to a head last month when city officials threatened to take the parcel by eminent domain and then more than doubled the assessed value of Fan Pier, leaving the billionaire owners with a $1.8-million tax bill. Nicholas Pritzker did not return calls to GlobeSt.com seeking comment. Fallon's Boston based firm, Fallon Development, already has some experience in the Seaport District. The company has built the 455 room upscale Marriott Residence Hotel near Boston Harbor and the 800-room Westin Hotel adjacent to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, both in the same area as the Fan Pier site.
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