Fidelity Investments is taking another step toward a massive renovation of its World Trade Center complex in the Seaport with plans that show a newly modern look and more open space on the waterfront for public use.
The mutual fund giant’s real estate arm, Pembroke, expects to file detailed plans Wednesday with the Boston Planning and Development Agency. The most dramatic changes would occur on the front side of the complex, closest to Seaport Boulevard: The Commonwealth Hall exhibition space will be shuttered for good next year and replaced in part by a 25,000-square-foot waterfront courtyard that will feature small outdoor events and markets throughout the year.
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Fidelity controls the approximately 800,000-square-foot complex, on the 19-acre Commonwealth Pier, through a long-term lease with the Massachusetts Port Authority. It employs about 1,500 people there. A spokesman says a similar number would work there once the project is done, and Fidelity would be the sole office tenant.
The revised office space will be nearly 640,000 square feet, while the amount set aside for shops and restaurants will increase fivefold, to 45,000 square feet.
Pembroke has no plans to increase the height of the two- and three-story building. There will also be 56,000 square feet of event space.
Fidelity said it would also update the somewhat forlorn Harborwalk that encircles the building by adding new open spaces around the perimeter, carving niches out of the building to break up the linear wall, and adding new lighting, furnishings, and artwork.
Construction would begin in the first half of 2020, after Pembroke obtains the necessary city and state permits, with a goal of completing the work in 2024.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jonchesto.