11-Story Office Building Could Come to E. Berkeley St.

It's currently the site of an auto repair shop and parking lot, but the site at 80 East Berkeley Street in the South End could become an 11-story office building with retail or restaurant space. 

The Boston Redevelopment Authority will host a public meeting on Wednesday night to go over the details of the project. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts (527 Tremont St.)

The proposal from developers The Druker Company, Ltd., calls for 290,000 square feet of office space on ten floors, 18,000 square feet of retail or restaurant space on the ground level, and a parking garage with 200 spaces. 

"The project will replace an existing surface parking lot and auto repair shop with a modern, architecturally distinctive 11-story mixed-use building and provide urban design, streetscape and pedestrian improvements, environmental and economic benefits," the developer wrote in its filing. "The existing surface parking will be replaced below grade, and the local street grid will be enhanced by a new landscaped accessway and view corridor running parallel to East Berkeley Street along the northern edge of the building and connecting Shawmut Avenue to Washington Street."

The filing also says this is the first office building project proposed in the city since 2008. 

The project's architects are Elkus/Manfredi Architects and the construction manager is listed as John Moriarty & Associates of Winchester, MA. 

You can read much more about the project in advance of Wednesday's meeting at the Boston Redevelopment Authority website. 

What are your thoughts on this latest development in the South End? Do you think it will seek to complement the existing large scale housing projects currently being build in the neighborhood? Tell us in the comments.