FEATURE ARTICLE, NOVEMBER 2004

THE NEWS ON NEWBURY STREET
The Wilder Companies’ newest urban retail project will redevelop a historic building in Boston’s Back Bay area.
Katie Foxworth

Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners LLC is redeveloping the New England Life Building, a Boston landmark since it was built in 1941. The historic office building in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood will be known as The Newbry and will feature three floors of retail.

Fifth Avenue. Rodeo Drive. Worth Avenue. Some retail streets simply define high-end shopping sophistication at its upper crust best. And don’t overlook Boston’s Newbury Street, located in the city’s historic Back Bay district. With heavy hitters like Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Armani, Brooks Brothers and Burberry in its lineup, Boston’s Newbury Street easily finds itself in the same league as the big boys when it comes to luxury retail.

Now Newbury Street is on track to hit another homerun with The Newbry, a redevelopment of the New England Life Building, a Boston landmark since it was built in 1941. The Newbry, owned by Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners LLC, will begin delivering space to tenants in spring 2005. Many of those tenants will be high-end, two-level international retailers, some of which have U.S. locations only in New York and California.

“It is probably the most exciting retail opportunity to come along in Boston’s Back Bay in many, many years,” says Andrew LaGrega, a principal of Boston-based The Wilder Companies, which has been named retail development consultant on the project. Wilder will also handle retail leasing.

Just imagine: you have one of the most famous retail corridors in the world and suddenly 150,000 square feet of retail space opens up. The 600,000-square-foot building spans the entire city block between Newbury Street and Boylston Street, which has become quite a dominant retail corridor in its own right with tenants such as Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware and some of the finest restaurants in Boston. Such a rare and fantastic opportunity is precisely why The Wilder Companies was so attracted to The Newbry redevelopment.

“It is going to change this section of Newbury Street,” LaGrega says. “There are very few spectacular retail streets in the world, and Newbury Street is one of them. To have 150,000 square feet available is just a tremendous opportunity.”

Centered in the heart of the Back Bay, the New England Life Building was erected in 1941 as an institutional office building housing the corporate headquarters of New England Life and, subsequently, MetLife Inc. for the past 60 years. In December 2002, 501 Boylston Street Property LLC, an affiliate of Beacon Capital, purchased the building from MetLife, currently the building’s major tenant. Now MetLife will consolidate its operations and space within the building in order to make room for more office space as well as two additional floors of retail.

“The existing retail in the building was basically one floor, and now we’re converting it to three floors,” LaGrega explains. “The two-level tenants are really driving the project for now because the demand for one-level tenants is tremendous. We have a waiting list. We’re trying to select the best two-level tenants to divvy up the 150,000 square feet and achieve the best tenant mix possible.”

LaGrega says his company is talking to international, national and even local retailers. “I think you’ll see apparel, home furnishings and a book component,” he says. “The co-tenancy that we can deliver — in addition to the surrounding neighbors of this location — are the Who’s Who of retailers.”

The Wilder Companies is highly selective when it comes to choosing retail tenants, for this or any project. “We pride ourselves on not just filling up spaces,” LaGrega says. “We won’t make a deal just to make a deal — we’ll make a deal if it’s the right deal. It’s a real partnership, and I think that’s why retailers like doing business with us. We treat every property like we own it ourselves.”

In this case, Wilder’s goal is to reconnect the 10-story New England Life Building to its unique urban roots by creating a focal point on all three streets that it fronts (Newbury, Boylston and Clarendon streets). As it stood formerly — as an office building — the space was somewhat removed from its vibrant retail surroundings. Now it is hoped that 501 Boylston Street will once again serve as a center of retail action in the bustling Back Bay neighborhood. Upon completion of all improvements, including restoration of the Art Deco lobby, Beacon Capital’s investment in The Newbry will total approximately $185 million.

As any urban in-fill developer can attest, adaptive reuse of historic space is never easy. One challenge is finding a way to adapt the institutional office space to accommodate retail, while still preserving the building’s historic architecture to Back Bay Architectural Commission standards. LaGrega is confident, though, that the renowned Elkus/Manfredi architectural firm is up to the task.

“The challenge is creating great street retail,” LaGrega says. “One of the real advantages of this building is the fact that it is right on grade. Many of the buildings on Newbury Street, you have to walk down steps or walk up steps.”

According to LaGrega, the project will begin delivering space to tenants in spring 2005, with a completion date set in time for the 2005 holiday season. “The reception from the community has been spectacular,” he says. “They’re looking forward to the remerchandising of this building. The focus of the building in the past — even though it is probably the best retail location on both Newbury and Boylston streets — has always been an office building. So one of the reasons for the repositioning and renaming of the building is to give it a whole new focus for retail.”

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