Shawmut Inn to go upscale (!)
Do you remember when North Station used to be a dump?
(What, two weeks ago? Ha ha!)
Truthfully, the minute they took down the elevated Green Line tracks, Causeway Street looked so much better.
The area is still in transit, however. The street is too wide, so you feel like the street is abandoned.
The same thing happened along Washington Street in the South End / Roxbury, I guess, when they took down the elevated Orange Line tracks. It looked a lot better, but the street was so wide that it ended up looking abandoned for several years, until residential real estate was built and life brought back to the area.
Within time, however, the street will be filled in. At some point (we pray), a new hotel / office tower will go up in front of the TD BankNorth Garden (along with residential towers, around the corner?). That will bring density to the block. Yes, it will probably result in more congestion.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. People do better in more-dense spaces.
Meanwhile, around the corner, things have already improved.
From GlobeSt.com:
The 66-room Shawmut Inn in the emerging North Station district has been acquired for $11.5 million by Gemini Real Estate Advisors of New York City in a deal negotiated by CBRE Hotels.
The property is located at 280 Friend Street.
The current owners bought it in 1995 and invested $2 million, converting it from offices to hotel rooms.
The part of the story I found amazing was this:
… the Shawmut Inn boasted impressive occupancy levels early on, with rents of $100 to $150 per night serving a constituency not willing to pay double and triple that commanded elsewhere in the city.
Gemini does hope to push the rate from a budget range to mid-priced product, Jariwala says.
Yes, in Boston, “budget” hotels are in the $100 - $150 range, and mid-range is apparently above that.
Sweet.
Gemini Pays Nearly $12M for 66-Key Shawmut Inn - By Joe Clements. GlobeSt.com
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