If you haven’t stopped by the old Filene’s Basement area in Downtown Crossing, you’re going to be quite surprised to see what has been happening. To set the stage, the below photo was taking at the end of January 2008, just before the Filene’s lettering was removed from the side of the “basement” in preparation for demolition.
Construction crews are making way for the preservation of, and renovation to, the existing eight-story Filene’s building at the corner of Washington and Summer Streets, and the nine-story building at the corner of Hawley and Franklin Streets, combing to form a new mixed-use development called the One Franklin Tower at 426 Washington Street. One Franklin will boast over 1,200,700 square feet of hotel, retail, office, and residential Midtown condos.
Fast forward to this past weekend, August 2008, and you will see the exclusive photos below show significant progress (or lack of, depending on how you look at demolition) on the One Franklin project site.
Keith Munsell 
Please send me sales info when it beocomes available. Thanks.
When is the construction due to be complete? Any sales pricing info at the moment? Please send me information when available, thanks.
Is anyone developing this site right now?
The One Franklin Project is on hold given lack of financing. The Mayor’s office has requested the site be “cleaned up” in the meantime.
Said “cleanup” has consisted of putting masking on the chainlink fence surrounding the site. The half-demolished building has been sitting untouched for months… a huge embarrassment for the city and the Mayor, who allowed the developers to cut numerous corners in order to “fast track” the development. Now Downtown Crossing looks like a war zone, and word is that there is no solution on the horizon…