According to Meg Mainzer-Cohen, executive director of the BackBay Association and a member of Pru Pac, the vote was nearlyunanimous with one dissenting member. Pru Pac is a committeerepresenting approximately 23 neighborhood and business groups thatwas put together in the mid 1980s to do design review on projectsat the Prudential Center. "We are involved in any significantdevelopment there," Mainzer-Cohen tells GlobeSt.com, including 11Huntington, the Shaw's market and the redesign of the Center.

The site here was approved for residential development but thedevelopers, Robin Brown, Steve Weiner and Julian Cohen, initiallyproposed developing a hotel on the site instead. Pru Pac rejectedthe proposal and the plans have been going back and forth until therecent plan--which includes a hotel and a residential complex intwo 155-foot-tall buildings--was proposed. "There's a sense thathousing will bring more life and vitality to the street," notesMainzer-Choen, explaining why the committee insisted on aresidential component for the site. "When people live in an area,it improves it. They are invested in that area."

The approved proposal includes a 168-room hotel, 58 rentalapartments, 48 condominiums, and 50,000 sf of retail space. Tenpercent of the housing will be designated affordable, which isunusual for this area. The city's inclusionary zoning law requiresa 10% affordable-housing component but most developers in this areameet the requirement by developing the housing off-site. "This willbe the first affordable housing built in the Back Bay in manyyears," says Mainzer-Cohen.