Boston Globe - January 24, 2007 by Thomas C. Palmer Jr.

Developer Ted Raymond has agreed to buy the sprawling One Congress Street parking garage from its New York owner, according to a real estate executive involved in the pending sale.

Through a spokesman, Raymond declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement with the property's seller, Randy Kohana.  But Rob Griffin, president of brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts Inc., which marketed the building, said Raymond is buying One Congress Street along with some partners.

Kohana confirmed there is a signed contract for the 2,310-car garage, which has two floors of office space plus retail area, but declined to comment further because of the confidentiality agreement.

No price has been disclosed, but an executive briefed on the deal, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak, said it is about $240 million.

The stark concrete building, which straddles the street, is considered a likely site for another Boston office tower.  It went on the market in September.

Kohana's RAK Group bought the property, formerly known as Government Center Garage, with a partner in 2000 for $118.5 million.

The building was constructed by the city in the late 1960's as part of a major urban renewal in Boston that rid downtown of colorful, but seedy, Scollay Square.  Mayor Thomas M. Menino recently proposed reversing some of that 1960's change by moving City Hall out of a nearby concrete structure of a similar style as the garage to a waterfront building.

Alex Krieger, chairman of Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, recalled being involved in planning for a renovated City Hall Plaza in the late 1990's, and said replacing the garage was considered even then.

"Few would come forward to protest the demolition of the building," he said.  "There is a major development opportunity there.  You could permit several million square feet of space."

A livelier and more pedestrian-friendly Haymarket Square could take the place of the east end of the garage, Krieger said.

Raymond is one of the developers designated to help rebuild the nearby Bulfinch Triangle, an area destroyed in the 1950's during construction of the elevated Central Artery.  He is selling Turner hill in Ipswich, which he bought in 1997 and tried to redevelop into a golf-course community.