Swinging for next-to-the-park homer

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Swinging for next-to-the-park homer
By Scott Van Voorhis/ Dealmakers
Friday, February 3, 2006 - Updated: 08:12 AM EST

Buy a condo and see a ballgame at Fenway Park.
    If that sounds like a dream combination, then the Sage family, longtime Hub hoteliers, has a deal for you.
    The Sages, owners of a 1950s Howard Johnson hotel next door to Fenway Park, are putting the finishing touches on a deal to redevelop their key property with an unusual partner - Wall Street financier John Henry and his Red Sox ownership group.
    That partnership agreement - which gives the Sox a roughly equal share in the development - is expected shortly, Bill Sage said yesterday.
    Meanwhile, an agreement with Arrowstreet, a well-regarded local architecture firm, was slated to be signed last night.
    Goodbye HoJo's, and hello sparkling new hotel and condo high-rise - one, that, not surprisingly, will likely include a menu of tie-ins to the action at Fenway Park.
    Current plans call for a mix of 275 hotel rooms - a combination of a traditional mid-market and an extended-stay hotel - and 170 condos. There will be stores and restaurants as well.
    "I think we both have the same principles and goals," Sage said yesterday of the pending Sox deal. "I think they like dealing with us, and we like dealing with them."
    One idea being batted about, Bill Sage said, would be to offer hotel room packages that include tickets or access to events over at Fenway. Condo owners in turn, would be first in line for any special deals or service available for hotel guests.
    While the height of the new condo and hotel complex has yet to be hammered out, some units may include a view of sorts of the inside of the park, Sage acknowledged.
    Still, Sage said no one should plan on buying a condo in a bid to get a birds-eye view of the action. The tallest part of the development will be pushed back, away from the park toward Boylston Street.
    "I have had some people tell us that they like just the idea of being next to the ballpark," Sage said. "But they shouldn't expect (that), 'Gee, I will buy a condo and get to see all the baseball games.' It's not going to work like that."
    Moreover, it's doctors and medical workers at the nearby Longwood Medical District - not starry-eyed Sox fans - who are the primary market, Sage insisted.
    But those docs had better be good Sox fans, or living next to Fenway may be more than they bargained for.
    That may be getting ahead of the story. After all, the Sage family spent years batting around various development plans. Is it serious this time?
    Here's a sign: The Boston hotel family, as it draws up plans for its dream Fenway complex, has just sold and cashed in another longtime, and lucrative, holding.
    Nordic Properties, an aggressive local development firm, has agreed to buy the Sages' Radisson Hotel on Memorial Drive in Cambridge.
    Nordic gets a spectacular site overlooking the Charles, with plans to build condos in front of the hotel.
    And the Sage family gets a cool $30 million - real money that will likely come in handy as it pursues longtime Fenway development dreams.
    File under sage planning.
    Federated Department Stores may be slowly grinding toward a conclusion in its high-profile sale of the landmark Filene's building in Downtown Crossing, real estate executives say.
    There is silence surrounding the deal, a possible sign that Federated may be hashing out details of a sale agreement that will set the stage for a mega-redevelopment of the site, executives said.
    A number of local players have bid, including State Street tower developer John Hynes and Celtics owner and Boston developer Robert Epstein.