Planned expansion of Landmark Center gets positive reviews

By Paula Garcia, Globe Correspondent

It is late afternoon and steady streams of people are making their way to the Fenway MBTA station. Some are dressed in suits, others in scrubs, and others more casually in jeans and sneakers. They all seem to emerge from the Landmark Center, a multi-service building that looms over the T stop.

This is a usual scene during weekdays in the Fenway, at the intersection of Brookline Avenue and Park Drive. The area, known for its proximity to Fenway Park and the Audubon Circle community, is the site of the Landmark Center, which provides office space for companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield and a variety of retail stores including Bed, Bath & Beyond and Best Buy.

On Jan. 16, the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved an expansion project for the Landmark Center. The project will renovate the interior of the current building, and expand to build a new section dedicated to housing development. The expansion is expected to create 550 housing units, more office and retail space, and the construction of a Wegmans supermarket.

Bill Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association, said the FCA and its members back the recently expansion plan.

We support it because it is predominantly residential, Richardson said in a telephone interview. We have been supporting all the residential projects in the neighborhood.

The Landmark Center expansion is a continuation of several development projects in the Fenway area by Samuels & Associates, a development firm that currently owns the Landmark Center. Samuels & Associates has been an active player in the Fenway since 2004. In the past 10 years, Samuels & Associates has built and redeveloped the Fenway community through the construction of the Fenway Triangle Trilogy and the 1330 Boylston St. building.

We believe that there is certainly a demand for housing in the city of Boston, Richardson said. I think the number one complaint among the younger people is that housing is too expensive, and there is only one way to tackle that -- try to get more housing.

The Landmark Center project will be part of three new housing-oriented projects in the area, which under BRA regulations will include onsite affordable housing units. The regulations, which are part of the Inclusionary development policy created by former Mayor Thomas M. Menino in 2000, require that any residential development have at least 10 percent of the total housing units be affordable housing for moderate to middle-income residents.

The Landmark Cente, along with The Point and the Van Ness Street projects, will add more than 1,000 new housing units into the Brookline Avenue corridor that runs from Kenmore Square to Park Drive.

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Planned expansion of Landmark Center gets positive reviews