Developers File Final Impact Reports for Mixed-Use Project at South Station

A spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority tells GlobeSt.com that the impact reports, which address issues raised by the state and city in 2000 and 2002, will be reviewed by the BRA and the state Department of Environmental Affairs during the next few months. Once those reviews are completed, development partners Hines and TUDC Inc. can seek permits allowing them to begin construction on the project.

The documents represent revisions to the proposal in response to comments and concerns raised by neighbors, including the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the developers said in a statement. Neither Hines nor TUDC could be reached for further comment by GlobeSt.com.

Plans for the project call for the creation of a 40-story office tower, a 13-story hotel and residential building and a nine-story office building to be built on air rights between the back of South Station and an adjacent bus terminal. A proposed $40 million would be spent to link the train station and bus terminal, and expand the terminal by 40%.

The project, which is expected to include more than $800 million in private investment funds, has been in the works since 1963 when the redevelopment of South Station was first discussed. In 1984, city, state and federal agencies announced that the area would become a major transportation and commercial center but it wasn't until 1991 that the BRA named TUDC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tufts University, as the developer of the air rights above South Station. TUDC selected Hines to be its co-developer in 1997 and later named Cesar Pelli & Associates Inc. of New Haven as the project's architect.