Developer buys historic Hub textile building for $9m, plans residences

The real estate along the edge of the old Central Artery in downtown Boston is beginning to take on a new life, the latest development being the proposed redevelopment of a once prominent textile building.

Swampscott businessman Ori Ron, who redeveloped 50 residential units in the nearby Leather District, has purchased the old Dainty Dot Hosiery property on Kingston Street near Chinatown for $9 million. A large portion of the building was lopped off in the mid-1950s to make way for the artery, but a six-story, 53,000-square-foot structure remains.

Ron has tentative plans for residential housing on the site but has not released more details. Under current zoning Ron can build a 100-foot tall building on Kingston Street, but would need city approval -- and likely neighborhood support -- if he wanted to build something taller.

Ron has hired Elkus/Manfredi Architects of Boston, which designed the stylized InterContinental Boston Hotel and Residences farther along the new Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, on Atlantic Avenue.

The Greenway has already triggered a number of property improvements and real estate developments in the area. Upscale condominiums are opening nearby on State and Broad streets, Fidelity Investments is putting in a park near the New England Aquarium, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston recently completed a large public plaza at its front door in Dewey Square.

Meanwhile, the owners of several office buildings that look out onto the Greenway, such as the International Place towers, are considering changes to their street-level spaces, possibly by adding new restaurants.

The Dainty Dot building, with Art Deco lettering, overlooks the site of a new Chinatown park. The 14,400-square-foot site includes two triangle-shaped open spaces.

The building was built in 1889 after the Boston fire of 1872 destroyed a residential neighborhood. It is on the National Register of Historic Places because of its location in a once-significant textile district, and the Boston Landmarks Commission is considering a petition to declare it a landmark, which would protect the exterior from demolition or major alteration.

Ron "really feels an obligation to do something special on the site that includes a nod to the future and to the past," said Michael K. Vaughan, the president of Nauset Strategies Inc., a real estate consultant hired by the developer. That means keeping at least a portion of the Dainty Dot building intact.

"It's a very important site because of where it is on the Greenway," said Vaughan. He said Ron hopes to file plans with the city before the end of the year.

Ron's company, Hudson Group North America Real Estate Trust, and partners are scheduling meetings with Chinatown community groups.

"It's a beautiful building," said Stephanie Fan, a representative of the Chinatown community on the Mayor's Central Artery Completion Task Force. "I'd like to see the open space around it turned in some way compatible with the park."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.