UPDATED: Plans for High-End Hotel Shelved

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect corrections and additions made to the original piece in Boston Business Journal

Plans to replace a vacant brick building on Arlington Street with a posh $7 million hotel have apparently been abandoned after delays caused by a lawsuit to challenge a zoning change prompted at least one potential tenant to pull out, according to Boston Business Journal.

“We’re very disappointed,” said David Schwartz, founder of BSA Management—headquartered on Columbus Avenue in the South End—and co-developer of the project, to BBJ. “It’s a project we spent a tremendous amount of time on, but the 18-month delay made it impossible for us to go forward.”

The project would have replaced the derelict three-story property at 110 Arlington Street, in the Bay Village neighborhood, between the South End and Back Bay, with a five-story hotel.

The Zoning Board of Appeals approved the 19-room Boston Boutique Hotel last fall, and construction was expected to start earlier this year and the opening was tentatively penciled in for 2013. Restaurateur Darryl Settles, owner of in the South End, known for live jazz and Southern food, was working with Schwartz on the development, which did gain a stamp of approval from the Bay Village Neighborhood Association, according to BBJ.

But Brian Boisvert, an abutter and member of the neighborhood association, filed a lawsuit arguing the hotel’s upper floors would block views from his rooftop deck, Schwartz told Boston Business Journal. Although he ended up dropping the suit, Schwartz said the damage was done.

“The suit delayed our ability to move forward and it became impossible to put all the pieces of this puzzle together in time for a spring opening,” he told BBJ. “And we lost a potential restaurant tenant because they got tired of waiting.”

According to Boston Business Journal, Boisvert disputed the claim that he opposed the project because the proposed hotel would block views from his rooftop deck, stating that he does not have a rooftop deck. He also noted that the lawsuit was pending only from April 22 through June 23, and could not have caused the 18-month delay cited by the developer. He also maintained he is not a "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY) opponent of neighborhood projects, the BBJ report said.

“The named plaintiff in the suit has been an active member of the neighborhood for 8 years and has not opposed any of the multiple previously-proposed projects at that location, some of which also included additional height above zoning,” Boisvert wrote to BBJ. “Far from being NIMBYs, the abutters have always supported well-planned development in and around Bay Village.”

According to Schwartz, the property, which was purchased in 2010 for $2.4 million, will be put up for sale.