High hopes for grand hotel in South Boston
A four-year construction project to build the new Omni Boston hotel — a $500 million, 1,000room, two-tower resort in Boston’s Seaport District — was formally announced yesterday, with pols welcoming both the luxury rooms and the jobs.
“I am excited to welcome the Omni to the South Boston waterfront,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh told the crowd gathered on the site at the intersection of Summer and D Streets, opposite the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
“I congratulate you on this exciting project and celebrate the hundreds, if not thousands of construction jobs and permanent jobs this project is going to create,” the mayor said. “This project certainly is a vision of economic growth and it is certainly going to reach out to every neighborhood. This is just continuing the transformation of our waterfront.” The hotel is slated to open in early 2021, and will feature two towers on the South Boston skyline, a luxury spa, an elevated pool deck, restaurants, and retail amenities.
“Boy, do we need these hotel rooms,” Gov. Charlie Baker said, recalling a recent visit from some out-of-town friends. “They just assumed they would not have that much trouble finding a hotel in the city of Boston. Literally the closest hotel they could find was (in) Worcester.”
Baker said his friends ended up staying at his house.
Omni Hotels owner Robert Rowling said the hotel would cost more than $500 million, or roughly $500,000 per room. He said the resort would appeal to locals as well as those visiting the city.
“This is going to be very authentic to what you all want to come see in your hometown,” Rowling said.
Yesterday’s unveiling ceremony comes a month after the Massachusetts Port Authority board authorized the agency to sign a development agreement and 90-year ground lease for the project.