A Grand Idea Gets Done

City forces team up to build a hotel that's expected to revitalize Kenmore Square

By Michael Rosenwald, Globe Staff, 11/3/2001

Frank Keefe knew it was a crazy idea: build a grand hotel in Kenmore Square, where grand hotels were the product of a bygone era, before the advent of bustling Boston University students and Red Sox fans.

"I wanted to get it done, but I had no idea if it was a good idea or even how to do it," said Keefe, a developer and former state secretary of administration and finance under Governor Michael Dukakis.

His longtime neighbor in Dorchester, Terrence I. Guiney, had the answer to both queries. With 20-plus years of hotel development under his belt, Guiney thought it was a great, timely idea, and, more importantly, he knew how to get it done.

Yesterday , six years later, the pair topped off their Hotel Commonwealth, an idea that city officials say is the catalyst for a number of redevelopment projects in Kenmore Square.

"It says back to the city: This is a jewel of Boston, and it will speak to all that is going on in Kenmore Square," said Mark Maloney, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority , in reference to the 150-room hotel that is scheduled to open next September.

Besides whisking the hotel through the development process, the city has joined forces with Boston University , the MBTA, and the Massachusetts Highway Authority to help give Kenmore Square a facelift with new apartments, retail space, and an overhauled transportation infrastructure.

"There will be a dramatic change in Kenmore Square," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said at a topping-off ceremony

And all that begins with the hotel, located at 500 Commonwealth Ave., on the Fenway Park side of the street. The hotel will feature a fine dining restaurant, a French bistro, and a sidewalk promenade with an eclectic collection of eight retail outlets.

The hotel project is directly across the street from the MBTA's bus shelter- a drab brick and concrete structure that will be modernized with a transparent glass and steel arched canopy surrounded by new trees and pedestrian walkways. There will be below-grade renovations as well.

Officials also plan to improve pedestrian circulation by realigning the Brookline Avenue intersection with Commonwealth Avenue. Roadways will be narrowed, sidewalks expanded. Crossing locations will be defined with striped paths in contrasting colors. Brick sidewalks will be added.

Around the square, the BRA has approved a plan by the Hotel Buckminster that allows for the conversion of the vacant second floor to be used for 18 new apartments. The hotel will also demolish a three-story addition and construct a seven-story building in its place, to be used for residential units and parking spaces.

Already completed is the rehabilitation of the Charlesview apartment building at 534-538 Commonwealth Ave. After a devastating fire in 1998, Modem Continental Enterprises acquired the building and renovated it behind the original front facade, adding two floors and 26,000 square feet. There are 28 market-rate units.

And in August, the BRA approved BU's proposal to renovate the Howard Johnson Hotel and use it for dormitory space.

"Kenmore Square, over a period of years, got a little seedy and didn't get the infrastructure and remaining investment it deserved," Maloney said, adding: "In conjunction with the hotel I see Kenmore Square as a greatly enlivened hub for students and Boston residents in a whole new way."

It was a vision that required the city, developers, state officials, and BU to come together.

BU owns the property where the hotel is being built and was looking for a developer for six years before Keefe, Guiney , and Dennis Callaghan came forward. The school also hopes to find developers to revitalize some of its property on the other side of Kenmore Square.

Joseph Mercurio, executive vice president of BU, said partnering with developers is good business for the school and community. In the hotel's case, Mercurio said the school protected its assets and increased its return, at the same time contributing to the area it operates in.