The property at 4-6 Newbury St., which includes a 160-car garage and first-floor retail space across from the Taj Boston Hotel, faces foreclosure, because its owner defaulted on the mortgage, according to a legal notice published yesterday.
The building is owned by Newbury Garage Associates LLC, which state corporation papers indicate is headed by Nader Golestaneh. Golestaneh, president of Boston’s Centremark Properties Inc., did not return calls for comment.
Jack Polatin, a Boston attorney representing the property’s mortgage holder, declined comment yesterday.
In April 2008, Golestaneh won Boston Redevelopment Authority approval to redevelop 4-6 Newbury in what would have been the first new major retail and office building on the upscale shopping thoroughfare. The estimated $14 million project never proceeded, however.
Golestaneh planned to tear down the 1980s-era, 49,000-square-foot garage and replace it with a seven-story building with three floors of retail space topped with four floors dedicated to offices, and 15 underground parking spaces.
“It’s a phenomenal retail location, and I think that a long list of retailers would love to be on the first block of Newbury Street – recession or no recession,” said Andy LaGrega, a partner at Wilder Cos., a retail development firm in Boston. “Prime properties, especially on Newbury Street, always are sought after.”
Retail rents for the property would fetch well over $100 per square foot and probably approach $200 per square foot for the first floor, LaGrega said.