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New development plan for Lovejoy Wharf

A new development team is proposing to restart the long-delayed transformation of Boston’s Lovejoy Wharf into a mixed-use complex of residences, offices, stores and a waterfront public park.

The Beal and Related Cos. are planning to build 100 residences at 131 Beverly St. and offices at 160 North Washington St., according to a filing released Friday by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Both buildings will have restaurants or retail stores at street level.

Converse Inc., of North Andover, is in discussions to move its corporate offices to the property, which is located in the West End between the TD Garden and the bridge to Charlestown. The building at 160 North Washington St. is designed to be occupied by a single tenant with up to 450 workers, according to the city filing.

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If approved by the BRA, construction is expected to begin by next summer.

A prior developer, Ajax Partners, had planned to build more than 200 residences on the site, but the $200 million project stalled after neighbors brought suit in 2007. Beal/Related have a deal to buy the property and are seeking to change some of the residences to offices.

The redevelopment, designed by The Architectural Team Inc. of Chelsea, promises to enliven the wharf and create new connections with surrounding open spaces.

Lovejoy’s waterfront park will link with Paul Revere Park to the north and the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway to the south, completing a string of open spaces stretching from Charlestown to Chinatown.

“This is going to revive the waterfront at its critical connection between the Charles River and Boston Harbor,” said Robert O'Brien, executive director of the Downtown North Association. “It will bring a pair of old buildings back to use and enhance the connection between the Greenway and the waterfront.”

In a letter to the BRA, the developers pledged to fill the three-quarter-acre park with new amenities, including seasonal markets, retail vendors, seating, dining, performance space, temporary recreational boat docks, and public water transportation facilities.

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Constructed in 1909, the now dilapidated wharf has never been open for public use and is now used for surface parking for events at the TD Garden.

The project will extend the city’s harborwalk at the edge of the property and result in construction of a two-level pavilion building connecting the wharf to North Washington Street. That building will have a public terrace overlooking the waterfront and the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge.

The 131 Beverly St. building will be demolished to make way for a 14-story glass residential building with about 100 units.

The 160 North Washington St. structure, known as the Hoffman Building, will be rehabilitated into an office complex with retail shops on the ground floor. The property will also get a 250-foot floating dock.


Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.