Waterfront's not yet feeling like home
Boston's last frontier shows signs of life, but still lacks that neighborhood allure
They came seeking harbor views, fresh, open spaces, and the thrill of watching Boston's final new neighborhood rise up around them.
But they're still waiting for the crowd to follow.
The city's last frontier, the South Boston Waterfront, has very few settlers. The stops and starts of development and the sagging residential real estate market have conspired to limit the number of apartments.
A whopping 1,660 hotel rooms have been built there, but just 792 new apartments, the same number of rooms as the new Westin Boston Waterfront hotel alone.
"It makes me wonder what comes first: Is it the neighborhood or the residents? What makes an area a neighborhood?" asked Rebecca Pacheco, 28. When she thinks of a neighborhood, she pictures her old spot in Somerville, with its corner Thai restaurant and other creature comforts. She returns there to go grocery shopping: The waterfront has no supermarket.
Still, after years as a wind-blown wasteland, the waterfront is beginning to show signs of life, some of it quite vibrant. The $800 million convention center has been booked beyond all expectations, Morton's steakhouse is a draw, Salvatore's has a contingent of local regulars, and LTK Bar and Kitchen is attracting curiosity-seekers from around the region. Prominent area chef Barbara Lynch is developing a restaurant in Fort Point Channel and Louis Boston owner Debi Greenberg has expressed interest in moving over from Newbury Street. Ten years from now, as people have been saying for nearly 10 years, this area should be the hottest place to be.
"I love this area because I feel like it is very up and coming," said Beth Heiss, 25, who was among the Fidelity employees at Tamo Bar in the Seaport Hotel on a recent Friday. On that evening, it was packed; a few Fridays later, the bar was nearly empty.
In the meantime, the vast, windblown streets are often lonesome between destinations, making the waterfront feel like an amalgam of disparate elements - convention center, hotel bars, a museum, a financial district, and a cruise ship port - strung together by parking lots and highway ramps. The only apartments along the harbor are the two Park Lane Seaport apartment buildings built by Joe Fallon, who recently broke ground on Fan Pier's first office building.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino acknowledged that the district still does not feel like the "24-hour neighborhood" that planners have long envisioned, its streets strolled by residents and hotel guests alike, day and night.
"No, it definitely is not there yet. It's coming," Menino said, noting that Fallon and another developer, John Hynes, plan to break ground on residential buildings next. "It's a project that will take several years to fulfill its potential."
To some of the urban pioneers who moved there over the past two years, the area's relative quiet is its charm. They enjoy the chance to be in the city without being overwhelmed by it.
"That's one of the nice things; it can be quiet. But a $5 cab ride can get you into the heart of the action," said Sarah Kenney, 27, who moved to the waterfront in September.
"It's still city life, but it feels like home, like you could walk down the street and you're not jostling for space," said Stephanie Orton, who recently signed a lease for a one-bedroom, $2,000-a-month apartment with her boyfriend. The 23-year-old market research analyst works in Waltham and spent three days looking at about 15 other apartments in older buildings on older streets. She wasn't looking for the charm of an old building or a three-story walkup. "Here, you get the really fresh, new feel to it," she added.
Likewise, Rory Alphas, 30, who moved there a month before having a baby, was looking for amenities - a nice building with an elevator, a concierge, and a fitness room - and, most important, a short-term lease, while she and her husband continued looking for a house. She has been pleasantly surprised by how crowded the waterfront's new restaurants are.
As a sales director for new luxury condos being built in the Fort Point Channel area, she was very familiar with the developments on the drawing board. "But I wasn't sure how many people actually were living in the area," Alphas said. "There's a lot, and it's fun."
Out here on the urban outpost, tenants have a striking view of Boston Harbor and access to a roof deck where dozens of young, professional tenants gather for impromptu parties and even free concerts: The
But as a tradeoff for those rare amenities, they have had to forgo some basic neighborhood conveniences. Not only is there no supermarket, there is no pharmacy or gas station, no dry cleaner or post office. Some say it's best to have a car - which costs $285 a month to park in the underground garage - to go grocery shopping in South Boston, Dorchester, or near their offices or old apartments. Others say it's no bother to have groceries delivered or to get their exercise while fetching them. Angela Aucoin, 25, a personal trainer, prefers to run her errands literally, on foot.
Many who work on the waterfront say the district needs much more, more people, more lunch spots, more character. Though it is packed with promise, the area still feels sterile and remote to Noah Bernard, 36, who works at Puma in the nearby Marine Industrial Park.
"It's like a convention center spot, is what it is," said Bernard. "It's like being in a no-man's land. You're not in the city."
City planners say that life on the waterfront will flourish, but development is now riding the peaks and valleys of the real estate market. More residential construction has been happening on the Fort Point Channel end of the district, though even there, one condo project turned into a commercial plan after the decline in the residential market.
"Looking in the context of the entire waterfront, we are not reaching either too much office or too much hotel at the expense of residential. I have learned over the years that you have to work with the market," said Kairos Shen, chief planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, who expects the waterfront's development to continue through the year 2040. "The market went away. I think that people need to be patient."
