Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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The Builders B oston real estate developers often get pinched between historic restrictions and their own pro- gressive visions. Two companies have successfully maneuvered through this tricky ter- rain: Weiner Ventures, cofounded by Stephen Weiner, the former managing partner of the company behind The Residences at Mandarin Oriental; and New England Development (headed by Stephen Karp), the firm responsible for Nantucket's White Elephant and many malls across the country. Stephen Weiner and Stephen Karp have both been deeply involved in Boston real estate for 30 years or more. Now Adam Weiner has taken the reins from his father as managing partner of Weiner Ventures, and Douglass Karp is taking a more active leader- ship role within New England Development, working side by side with his father and Steve Fischman, the company's president. Weiner Ventures is close to gaining approval to develop two properties at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street, which will eventually become a hotel, residen- tial units, and commercial space. "I'm proud to be a Bostonian, and I want to do the city right," says Weiner, 39, who lives in the Back Bay with his family. "At the end of the day, having busi- nesses, residents, and City Hall all speak well of us is our most important achievement." Weiner's close friend Karp, 37, executive vice president of NED, is overseeing the transforma- tion of an old shopping center along Route 9 into Chestnut Hill Square, a mixed-use retail project (with fitness and dining outposts as well as traditional retail and office space) and the development of the Seaport's Pier 4. The new rental development at the Seaport is the first step in a grand project that may include a hotel, office, waterside park, and underground park- ing garage, cementing the area as Boston's most vibrant new neighborhood. "We want the leg- acy of Pier 4 to be that it's a destination where people want to go," says Karp. "It's going to be an amazing attraction—there will nothing like it." really be 104 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM