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Luxury hotel company Raffles starts work on 33-story Back Bay tower

A rendering of the Raffles tower in the Back Bay. The Architectural Team, Inc.

Raffles is coming.

Ground officially broke Thursday on a new 33-story tower in the Back Bay that will be the first North American outpost of the renowned Raffles hotel company. The $400 million project, set to open in early 2022, will include a 147-room luxury hotel and 146 condominiums that are branded and overseen by the hotel company, which is best known for its 132-year-old flagship property in Singapore.

“Raffles is one of the most iconic names in the world, while the Back Bay is one of the most iconic neighborhoods in the world,” said Jordan Warshaw, president of The Noannet Group, which is developing the project, at Trinity Place off Stuart Street, along with Saunders Hotel Group. “In researching potential hotel partners for this project, we became enamored with everything Raffles stood for.”

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It will be the latest in a wave of luxury condo projects in Boston that are partnering with equally fancy global hotel brands, including the just-opened One Dalton Four Seasons and the St. Regis Residences, now under construction in the Seaport District. Pricing for units has not yet been set, but residents would have access to services at the hotel, and to “special benefits” at its partner properties around the world.

The splashy groundbreaking party held on Thursday also marked a milestone for the 40 Trinity project, which was proposed seven years ago and went through various changes during permitting, before landing financing and formally starting construction this summer. It will include $22 million in public benefits, according to the city, consisting of seven units of affordable housing in the building and $13 million in funding for off-site affordable housing.


Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.