General Electric filed an expanded project notification form with the Boston Redevelopment Authority yesterday morning, fleshing out the world headquarters they plan on building at 6 Necco Court in South Boston, along the Fort Point Channel. As previously reported, GE plans on renovating and connecting two older buildings and constructing a new, 12 story, 180 foot high building over a surface parking lot for a total of 388,700 square feet of space. In addition the proposal calls for making improvements to the Harborwalk in the area and building a covered, public pedestrian walkway through the building to access it.
While not without parking as it appeared in the letter of intent, the amount is still dropping significantly. Currently, 1.91 acres of the 2.4 acre site is taken up by surface parking. Following construction, only 0.39 acres will be parking – for a total of 30 spaces. The site is a short walk from South Station and is served by three bus routes, the Four, the Seven and the 11. Storage for up to 120 bicycles will be provided.
According to the traffic study included in the EPNF, the project is expected to generate over 2700 trips a day, but have little impact on traffic in South Boston. In addition to improving the Harborwalk, GE will rebuild or build sidewalks, install street trees and making the sidewalks ADA compliant.
The buildings to be renovated were built as warehouses by Necco in 1907, but have been vacant since being used as construction field offices for the Big Dig. According to City of Boston Assessing data, the site is owned by the Gillette Company. According to the EPNF, GE will buy some of the site directly, but the existing buildings will be bought by MassDevelopment, a state economic development agency, and leased to GE.
The project is planned to be rated LEED silver and will include solar panels to offset energy usage. They will be in a canopy over part of the building, a feature called a solar veil.