Topping off ceremony held for $170 million, 488,000 s/f The Kensington

on December 19th a ceremony to mark the topping out of a new, 27-story mixed-use development, The Kensington, was held. The land/building owner is Kensington Investment Co./National Development. The city's rental market is as strong as ever, even in the part of town once known as The Combat Zone, and The Kensington, a $170 million, 488,000 s/f development, stands out amid a flurry of new construction projects. The Kensington is designed by The Architectural Team, a recognized national expert on multifamily housing and mixed-use commercial development based at the vanguard of this wave of residential construction. The firm's work is setting a high bar for sustainable multifamily. Tracking LEED Gold, The Kensington has 381 luxury apartments protected by a high-efficiency aluminum curtainwall and a metallic finish rainscreen, with a completely smoke-free environment with clubrooms, an open-air pool on the landscaped sixth-floor terrace, and a fitness center. The ground floor will be animated by 4,000 s/f of retail storefront and below-market rental spaces for local nonprofit groups. There will be a space dedicated to artifacts from the Gaiety Theater, a vaudeville and burlesque house and landmark that until 2005 occupied the site where The Kensington is now being built. "It has been a privilege to work with the Kensington Investment Company, National Development and Suffolk Construction," said Michael Liu, AIA, principal of The Architectural Team, "On a project that will not only provide excellent new housing but also help to reinvigorate the local community, and hopefully set a new standard for sustainable, high-performance development." Executives from the two companies, as well as the Boston Redevelopment Authority's Peter Meade, attended the ceremony.