BRA Gives ‘Tentative Designation’ to American Seafood Exchange to build $68.9 million Seafood Processing and Distribution Center in Boston's Innovation District The BRA Board approved the tentative designation of American Seafood Exchange (ASE) project for the redevelopment of the BRA’s Marine Industrial Park’s Parcels M & N at 3 Dolphin Way.  The new seafood processing and distribution center will re-establish the city as a fully-operational, working seafood processing port and position it for growth in the 21st century. The ASE will revolutionize the way seafood is processed, bringing it from the ocean to consumers in record time through the use of a new state-of-the-art facility to be comprised of a public display auction, cold storage/fresh transfer house and public packing house. This new development integrates the latest industry technology, facilities and equipment with green building technology and a sustainable design aimed at meeting LEED certification, directly reflecting the vision of Mayor Menino’s Innovation District initiative.

The new building will further transform South Boston into a vibrant port that incorporates industry best practices under one roof, providing a state of the art infrastructure to ensure that Boston supports and expands the seafood industry. The project will also include a public viewing station along the scenic harbor walk, allowing the public to experience the exciting, working water front. Total project cost is estimated at $68.9 million, with $20.7 million in private equity funding. The project is expected to create more than 300 union construction jobs and support up to 1,500 permanent jobs.

The development team consists of American Seafood Exchange, LLC as the proponent; IN-SITE LLC as the development manager; Food Tech LLC as project engineers; CBT Architects and Strekalovsky Architecture as project architects; Brooks & Crowley as legal counsel; Cambridge Systematics as transportation consultants; Barclays Capitol, Cushman & Wakefield and Atlantic Management as real estate and equity sourcing advisors; and Jay Wickersham as environmental permitting consultant.

The Boston Marine Industrial Park (BMIP) is a 191-acre industrial park located on the southeastern edge of the South Boston port -area.  BMIP is Boston's largest industrial park, encompassing more than 3.3 million square feet of leasable building area.  The park lies less than one mile from the heart of downtown Boston and Logan International Airport.  BMIP contains an active dry-dock, benefits from 9,300 linear feet of shoreline, and offers direct accessibility to transport by water, air, rail and highway.

BRA released RFPs for this site in July 2010. [gallery link="file" columns="2"]