New, Bigger Midtown Hostel to Replace Back Bay Hostel
A new, $44-million Midtown hostel project – low-cost, no-frills, temporary accommodations aimed primarily at international student visitors – is set to bring more young people to midtown, between the theater district and Chinatown. Opening for the Midtown hostel is set for spring, 2012, effectively doubling the available city hostel space.
Run by Hostelling International, the new, environmentally-friendly hostel site is the 1886 Dill building at 25 Stuart St., a few doors from the venerable -- if-timeworn -- Jacob Wirth restaurant.
A complete interior redo of the six-story landmark building will replace a four-story hostel at 12 Hemenway St. in the Back Bay. The old hostel, with 205 beds, is in a student-rich neighborhood off Boylston Street, near Massachusetts Avenue, Berklee College of Music and Symphony Hall. It has visitors from more than 70 countries yearly. Proceeds from sale of the building, a hostel for more than 25 years, will help finance the new hostel. It is to close when the Dill building opens.
“The world-class facility will bring more than 46,000 visitors to the city each year to experience the culture and community of Boston; 30,000 (of them) will be international guests,” HI said on its website.
“With an anticipated direct spending by hostel guests in excess of $16 million each year, the new Boston hostel will spur economic activity and growth and add to Boston's growing reputation as an international city.”
The Dill building hostel will be closer to the Public Garden, Boston Common, midtown Boston and close to subway and intercity bus transport in Chinatown and at South Station.
Hostels were once called “youth hostels” but have, in the past 40 years, become popular with seniors (and other) budget travelers in the U.S. and abroad. Utilitarian, dorm-like accommodations are offered, along with some more-expensive-but-still-sparse single rooms. The Dill building hostel will use the top four floors as mostly dormitory space, with a few private rooms.
Hostelling International said Boston Hostel guests do more than sight-see, providing nearly 5,000 hours of community service to local non-profits such as the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Rosie's Place and the Greater Boston Food Bank.
And the new, barrier-free-access hostel will use many “green” technologies, including a green roof, green elevators, solar water heating, and shared amenities for guests. Hostels have common areas for cooking, eating and socializing. There is a Red Cross blood-donor center on the first floor now, but it will relocate.
HelloBoston Tip: Hostelling International has hostels on Cape Cod at Truro, Eastham and Hyannis and on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. HI’s Fenway summer hostel (1-617-267 8599) is near Boston’s Kenmore Square in the heart of Boston University at 575 Commonwealth Ave. It has 179 rooms and three-bed dormitories.
Posted by Dan Sheridan
