City Realty Eyes Redevelopment of Route 9 Office Park

Photo courtesy of City Realty Group

A high-visibility potential redevelopment site on Route 9 has been acquired by City Realty Group with plans for housing and new commercial uses replacing a 60-year-old office park.

Allston-based City Realty acquired the 5.3-acre property at 1280-1330 Boylston St. for $41 million. The site represents one of the town’s “most significant mixed-use development opportunities” in decades, City Realty said.

“We recognized this site represented a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring new life to a deteriorating stretch of such an important area,” City Realty Managing Partner Fred Starikov said in a statement.

The property contains four office buildings known as Chestnut Hill Office Park totaling 120,000 square feet.

City Realty has hired Finegold Alexander Architects to design a multi-building redevelopment including commercial, retail, medical, hospitality and residential uses, including housing for a range of incomes.

The property is the largest located within Brookline’s Chestnut Hill Commercial Area study district along a section of Route 9 from Dunster Road to the Newton city line, which could result in rezoning for mixed-use projects. An advisory group has scheduled a site walk of the study area at 4:30 p.m. on Friday beginning at 1280 Boylston St.

Town officials have set a spring 2025 target date for a town meeting vote on the rezoning proposal.

Northern Bank provided acquisition financing for the transaction.