Fenway status may submit developers to more scrutiny

The historic designation the Red Sox are seeking for Fenway Park could not only make them eligible for federal tax credits, but it could also raise the bar for developers trying to build projects nearby, preservationists said yesterday.

On application forms the Red Sox made available to the Globe, the team is asking the National Park Service to establish Fenway Park and two adjacent team-owned buildings as a historic district. One adjacent building is the Fenway Garage Co. building at 175 Ipswich St.

The other is the John B. Smith/Jeano Building, which is contiguous to and directly west of Fenway with original entrances on Brookline Avenue and currently houses the Red Sox ticket office and the restaurant Game On.

What the Red Sox want to do is have the three structures listed in the National Register of Historic Places, said Leslie Donovan, a preservation consultant advising the Red Sox.

If the team's request is granted, Donovan said, ''it would establish a historic district" comprised of three buildings.

If Fenway Park is designated a historic district, Donovan said, developers contemplating large nearby projects could be subject to reviews by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which would seek to determine if development might impair the district's historic character.

Seeking special status for Fenway constitutes ''enlightened self-interest" on the team's part, said Matthew J. Kiefer, a real estate lawyer at Goulston & Storrs.

''It puts an arrow in their quiver to protect the historic character of Fenway from surrounding development," he said.

But Ellen Lipsey, executive director of the Boston Landmarks Commission, noted that proposed projects near the ballpark already undergo intense scrutiny ''by virtue of Fenway being Fenway."

''This won't add a new layer of review," she said. ''The maximum reviews are already in place."

Typically, applications for historical designations are submitted to a state agency, such as the Massachusetts Historical Commission. If the state agency decides an application has merit, it would be forwarded to the National Park Service, which would decide whether to list a property on the National Register of Historic Places.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Historical Commission said the commission has received a Red Sox application seeking federal tax credits.

Being listed on the National Register is not the same as being designated a historic landmark, said Al Nash, a public affairs specialist for the park service. But being listed on the register makes a property eligible for federal tax credits. The Red Sox are undertaking long-term renovations that could invest $200 million in Fenway Park.

According to the park service, a property can be eligible for a tax credit that ''equals 20 percent of the amount spent in a certified renovation of a certified historic structure."

Not all renovations qualify as ''certified" renovations.

Costs for renovating a designated building's façade can be eligible for tax credits, said Yanni Tsipis, a vice president at Meredith & Grew Inc./Oncor, a real-estate services firm that does tax-credit work, but other kinds of work, such as new construction, may not.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.