MassDOT, MBTA choose developer for turnpike, Hynes station project

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) have selected The Peebles Corp. as the developer for the Turnpike Air Rights Parcel 13 and the adjacent Hynes Convention Center Station on the Green Line in Boston.

The Peebles proposal calls for a 373,000-square-foot development to include 85 rental and 88 condominium residential units, a 156-key hotel, 26,000 square feet of retail space and 138 accessory parking spaces. As required by the request for proposals, the project also will feature new accessible entrances to Hynes Station on Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street, as well as accessibility and other improvements throughout the station, and the replacement of the aging Green Line electrical equipment, MBTA and MassDOT officials said in a press release.

The Peebles proposal was one of three received by MassDOT in November for the site. Other proposals were provided by Boston Residential Group, which proposed student housing, retail, and hotel uses, and Trinity Financial, which proposed residential and retail uses.

Parcel 13 comprises 54,500 square feet of air rights over the Massachusetts Turnpike and portions of the MBTA Green Line tunnel across from the Hynes Convention Center. Hynes Station does not meet federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and is the busiest Green Line station not currently accessible to people with disabilities, MBTA officials said.

The development will continue the transformation of the critical Back Bay intersection along the turnpike while providing a state-of-the art, accessible MBTA station, said MassDOT Acting Secretary and Chief Executive Officer Frank DePaola.