Posted on Friday, 13th January 2012 by Blake James
Students studying music at the Boston Conservatory may someday live within a baseball’s throw of Fenway Park [map] and the Red Sox [team stats]’ strains of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Sweet Caroline.”
The private performing arts college said yesterday it paid $5.1 million for 132 Ipswich St., a single-story brick building near the ballpark that will be converted into classrooms and practice spaces — and possibly expanded for dorms.
“It will be either a major renovation or a complete redevelopment of the site,” said Eric Norman, the school’s vice president of finance and planning, who added that the design phase just started and will take several months.
The school noted in its master plan, approved by city planners in September, that it “would seriously consider adding housing” on Ipswich Street if finances allow. The lot is zoned for up to eight stories.
“I’m sure the students would love being down there,” Norman said. “Besides being close to the ballpark, it’s just a fun area.”
The 730-student Conservatory, founded in 1867, is sprawled across a dozen buildings — including its main building at 8 The Fenway, a $32 million theater that opened in October 2010 on Hemenway Street, and student housing in five brownstones facing the Fens.
The school snagged the nearby Ipswich Street site because three of its leases for studio spaces will expire by 2016.
The warehouse-style structure — at one end of Lansdowne Street, across from Jillian’s nightclub — has been home to Shrut & Asch Leather Co. since 1982. The business sells kidskin, or leather from young goats used for shoes, purses and other items.
Howard Shrut, a Newton resident who owns the building through a family trust, is moving his 70-year-old company to Woburn.
Shrut said his broker marketed the property for several years, generating interest from “a constant stream of people” and even fielding a bid from the Sox as the team looked to expand its real estate footprint around Fenway.
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Tags: Fenway, Fenway Building
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