Boston ZBA Defers Former Alexandra Hotel Conversion to July Over Community Process Disputes

Uncategorized · Meeting of July 19, 2026

Boston ZBA defers 76-unit Alexandra Hotel conversion after community process disputes and compact-unit concerns. The Boston Zoning Board of Appeals voted 5-1 at its April 26 hearing to defer to July 7 a proposal by Alexandra Partners LLC to convert the long-vacant former Alexandra Hotel at Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue from an approved 158-room hotel into a 76-unit residential building rising up to 13 floors. Attorney Mark LaCasse told the board the COVID-19 pandemic collapsed hotel financing in 2020, prompting the pivot to residential use, but board members including Mark Ehrlich said the interior had not been adequately redesigned.

"There was frankly a desire not to redesign the interior once it became clear it was not going to be a hotel," Ehrlich said, "and that's really not appropriate." Of the 76 proposed units, 33 would be compact, including 24 compact one-bedrooms at roughly 533 square feet; there are no three-bedroom units and only 10 IDP affordable units. Roxbury Neighborhood Council representative Connie Forbes told the board the RNC had been excluded from the community process since the project was misclassified as a South End project in 2018, and asked the board to wait until a scheduled RNC-developer meeting could take place.

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Source: the Uncategorized meeting of July 19, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.