Cross Street Boutique Hotel Project Approved by BPDA

The Boston Planning and Development Agency’s (BPDA) board approved the project to transform the former site of J. Pace & Sons, Maria’s Pastry and Living Luxury on Cross Street into a boutique hotel after the local developer made changes to the project last month.

William Caulder, who lives in the North End, and Mike Doherty, the project architect, presented the changes to the community at a BPDA meeting in February.

The biggest change Caulder made is to double the size of the pedestrian passageway to Cutillo Park and double the height of passegway. This open air passageway will connect Cutillo Park with the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and the developer has agreed to create ADA access to the park.

The developer also reduced the hotel room count from 140 to 134 rooms. However, the BPDA gave approval for 124 rooms.

“Boston’s gateway to the North End will be revitalized with a hotel project on Cross Street between Salem and Endicott Street,: wrote the BPDA board in its decision. “The project, following the BPDA’s Greenway District Planning Study, will construct a five-story, 124 room hotel that will also house two restaurants and a seasonal rooftop dining terrace while transforming the existing plaza into a more pedestrian-friendly space.”

The developer will also contribute $100,000 to Cutillo Park, enter into a maintenance agreement with the Parks Department, implement rodent control measures as well as trash enclosures for area business trash receptacles.

The developer is also looking to make significant investments to upgrade the Cross Street Plaza and Morton Street. This includes the reconstruction of Morton Street along Cutillo Park. Caulder will also be making a variety of streetscape improvements, planting a bunch of new shade trees and making it more attractive overall. The project will be adding two new ground floor restaurants and seasonal rooftop dining, which will go a long way to revitalizing what is currently an underutilized site.

The building is going to have a focus on sustainability and energy efficiency and is going to be LEED Gold certified.

The project will create both short term and long term jobs and will generally clean up the site and improve security in the area.