Scientology scrubs Boston hotel HQ

Church to sell South End property, pursue other options

Boston Herald/December 13, 2014

By Richard Weir

The Church of Scientology is putting the Hotel Alexandra on the market after deciding to pull the plug on its long-stalled plans of restoring the blighted South End landmark into its new Boston headquarters, church officials announced yesterday.

Just recently we’ve had some changes in our programs — some upgrades have caused a need for more space for course-rooms. With that, our international office told us that the Hotel Alexandra will not work because we need at least 50,000 square feet,” said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology Boston.

Hall said the overall project would have yielded only about 42,000 square feet, including 25,000 from the hotel and another 17,000 from the erection of a new building on a vacant adjoining lot — the site of the “Ivory Bean” brick row house that the church tore down in 2012 after parts of it collapsed.

But Marc LaCasse, a lawyer for the church, said the cost of rehabilitating the five-story hotel and overcoming a multitude of engineering hurdles were also factors in the decision to sell the building.

The once grand Victorian Gothic edifice — it was built in 1875 as a luxury hotel for long-term guests at the crossroads of Washington Street and Mass Ave. — fell into terrible disrepair, suffering from neglect and fire while remaining vacant for decades.

LaCasse said estimates for the project — all work needs to meet strict city historic preservation requirements because the former hotel is located within the South End Landmark District — ranged from $24 million to a scaled-back $12 million.

“That’s why they decided to sell and look for something that is not as labor intensive. They are not real estate developers,” LaCasse said, adding he “absolutely” believes the church will receive considerably more for the two properties than the $4.5 million it paid for them in January 2008.

“It’s a different market than it was in 2008. Read any report. There’s no inventory in Boston now. There’s awesome demand, but no inventory,” said LaCasse, who declined to reveal an asking price or when he plans to put the site up for sale, except to say: “As soon as possible.”

The church in August 2013 sold its longtime headquarters at 448 Beacon St. in Back Bay for $10.5 million and moved to a temporary location in Quincy Center.

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