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The Seaport District, or simply the Seaport, is a neighborhood in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. It is part of the larger neighborhood of
South Boston South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformat ...
, and is also sometimes called the Innovation District. The Seaport is a formerly industrial area that has undergone an extensive redevelopment effort in recent years. It is bordered by the
Fort Point Channel Fort Point Channel is a maritime channel separating South Boston from downtown Boston, Massachusetts, feeding into Boston Harbor. The south part of it has been gradually filled in for use by the South Bay rail yard and several highways (specif ...
to the west,
Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History ...
to the north and east, and the historic residential neighborhood of South Boston to the south. It is officially referred to by the City of Boston as The South Boston Waterfront. The Seaport District is at extreme risk of climate-related flooding over the next 30 years.


Name

The section of South Boston north of First Street was targeted for massive redevelopment by the administration of
Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...
and the
Boston Planning and Development Agency The Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA), formerly the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), is a Massachusetts public agency that serves as the municipal planning and development agency for Boston, working on both housing and commercial de ...
. Initially referred to as the Seaport District by the BRA, the area was officially restyled the "South Boston Waterfront" after virulent protest from natives and local politicians, including City Council President James M. Kelly. Despite this, it is commonly known as the Seaport District. The name Innovation District was also proposed.


Development

Development in the Seaport has boomed during the early 21st century. It was considered "the hottest, fastest-growing real estate market in the country" in 2014. , it was the fastest growing part of
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and has stimulated significant economic growth in the city. The restoration of the Seaport began with the completion of the
Big Dig The Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T Project), commonly known as the Big Dig, was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the Central Artery of Interstate 93 (I-93), the chief highway through the heart of the city, into the 1.5-mile (2.4&n ...
. This $14.6 billion project buried the formerly elevated Central Artery I-93 Interstate which previously cut off the waterfront from the rest of the city. Additionally,
Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...
was extended eastward from I-93 through the Seaport and across the
Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History ...
to
Logan International Airport General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport , also known as Boston Logan International Airport and commonly as Boston Logan, Logan Airport or simply Logan, is an international airport that is located mostly in East Boston and partial ...
and East Boston to connect the SPID with downtown Boston, revitalizing the area and prompting a surge of growth. The end of the Big Dig also created a completely new transportation network for the area. The Silver Line of the
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network i ...
provides public transportation to the area, and the
Boston Harborwalk Boston Harborwalk is a public walkway that follows the edge of piers, wharves, beaches, and shoreline around Boston Harbor. When fully completed it will extend a distance of from East Boston to the Neponset River. History The Harborwalk is a coo ...
runs through it. The
Evelyn Moakley Bridge The Evelyn Moakley Bridge is a bridge that connects Downtown Boston to the Seaport District. It was named for the late wife of Congressman Joe Moakley on October 4, 1996, shortly after her death. At the eastern end of the bridge is the John Josep ...
connects the Seaport to Downtown Boston. In May 2010, Menino announced plans for the city to develop 1,000 acres on the South Boston Waterfront as an Innovation District. Inspired by the success of the
22@ 22@ (read ca, vint-i-dos arrova ), also known as 22@Barcelona and Districte de la innovació (''innovation district'') is the corporative name given to an urban renewal area in Barcelona's formerly industrial area of Poblenou, in the district ...
model, the mayor's vision was to redevelop the then-mostly abandoned Seaport District into a hub for
Information Age The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, Silicon Age, or New Media Age) is a historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during ...
jobs and a new frontier for cutting-edge industries such as clean tech, health care information technology and mobile media. It is now home to tens of new office towers, residential buildings, and "innovation labs" either proposed or under construction. The buildings are designed with critical systems above the first floor to avoid flooding from the tides. Between Menino's announcement of an innovation district in 2010 and 2017, 5,000 new jobs were created and over 200 new companies have formed. Forty percent of the companies located in the Innovation District share space in co-working spaces and incubators. Over 1,100 housing units were constructed, including 300 innovation micro-units.


Commercial

, the Seaport has 78 restaurants, 8 hotels, and continues to grow. The South Boston Waterfront area is part of the
Port of Boston The Port of Boston ( AMS Seaport Code: 0401, UN/LOCODE: US BOS) is a major seaport located in Boston Harbor and adjacent to the City of Boston. It is the largest port in Massachusetts and one of the principal ports on the East Coast of the Unite ...
on
Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History ...
. In September 2010, the Seaport Square project was under planning. It was expected to cost $3 billion and replace parking lots between the federal courthouse and convention center with a mixed-use development. Construction was expected to begin in 2011. In 2007, the Fallon Company was developing Boston’s Fan Pier, one of the most sought-after waterfront sites in the United States, and a catalyst for the revitalization of South Boston’s waterfront. Fan Pier is a nine-acre, 21 city block site which consisted largely of underutilized parking lots when the Fallon Company purchased it for $115 million in 2005. , it was a neighborhood consisting of four commercial towers-–One Marina Park Drive, 11 Fan Pier Boulevard, 50 Northern Avenue, and 100 Northern Avenue—and a luxury condominium tower Twenty Two Liberty. A second residential building, Fifty Liberty, was under construction at that time and to more high-rise towers were planned. When complete in 2020, the $4 billion Fan Pier project will encompass three million square feet of commercial and residential real estate, public, civic and cultural space, including two parks and a 6-acre marina. On January 13, 2016, it was announced that GE would be moving its corporate headquarters from
Fairfield, Connecticut Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Easton, Weston, and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. Located within the New York metropolitan ar ...
to the South Boston Waterfront. Some of the workers were planned to arrive in the summer of 2016 and the full move to be completed by 2018. GE ranks eighth on the
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
at the time and was to become the largest publicly traded company based in Massachusetts. Subsequently, the company announced plans to shrink and eventually sold their property on Fort Point Channel for $287 million. In November 2016, the global athletic footwear and apparel company
Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...
announced they would be moving their headquarters from the Boston suburb of
Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...
to the Innovation and Design Building in the Seaport District of South Boston. The reasons for the move, according to the company, is to be located in an urban environment that is more desirable to
millennial Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the Western world, Western demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as start ...
workers and to “clarify the roles” of United States offices. The move was completed in the fall of 2018. Soaring rent prices in the Seaport have raised concerns that the rapid real estate development in the area is pricing out entrepreneurs and startup companies – the organizations and people the Innovation District is designed to attract. In just a few years, rents have increased 43% in the Seaport, with the average rent at $52.92 per square foot, approximately at the same level of Boston's affluent Back Bay neighborhood.


Residential

Due to the increase in nightlife in the neighborhood, on-street parking for residents has become increasingly scarce. In response, city officials launched a 90-day pilot program that will expand resident only parking to seven days a week, from four. The aim, according to City Council President Bill Linehan was to address the scarcity of parking for residents on weekends. According to ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', a two-bedroom apartment in the Seaport area can rent for more than $5,000 per month and the purchase cost would be more than $2 million in 2018.


Institutions

The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center straddles D Street. The convention center was built in 2004. The
Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center The Seaport Boston Hotel and World Trade Center is a hotel and conference center complex located on the South Boston Waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. The South Boston Waterfront is also known as the Boston Seaport District and the Innovation ...
is located on Commonwealth Pier. A new home for the Institute of Contemporary Art hangs over
Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History ...
just north of Northern Avenue. The Society of Arts and Crafts, New England’s oldest craft-focused nonprofit is situated closeby on Pier 4. The
John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse is a federal courthouse for the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, located on Fan Pier on the Boston, Massa ...
is on
Fan Pier Fan commonly refers to: * Fan (machine), a machine for producing airflow, often used for cooling ** Hand fan, an implement held and waved by hand to move air for cooling * Fan (person), short for fanatic; an enthusiast or supporter, especially wit ...
. The
Seaport Shrine Our Lady of Good Voyage, also known as the Seaport Shrine, is a Roman Catholic church located at 51 Seaport Boulevard in the Seaport District of Boston and in the Archdiocese of Boston. The shrine has 250 seats and holds Mass twice daily and three ...
is right over the Moakley Bridge on Seaport Boulevard.


Climate-related flood risks

A 2021 report by the First Street Foundation found that all critical infrastructure, nearly all commercial buildings, and 90% of roads in the Seaport District are at risk of becoming inoperable by mid-century due to climate-related flooding.


References

{{coord, 42.346, -71.042, type:adm3rd_globe:earth_region:US-MA, display=title Neighborhoods in Boston South Boston