Winthrop Center rendering, via Handel Architects.

With the Boston City Council’s final vote, the more than decade-long debate over how to develop the former Winthrop Square garage ended last week. Just after the approval vote, developer Millennium Partners announced the Winthrop Square project will break ground on Oct. 24, concluding a dispute that extended through two mayoral administrations and the yearlong demolition of the original structure.  

In the conclusion of an offer first made in 2016, the city council sold the parking garage to developer Millennium Partners Boston  for $105.4 million, where the company has announced its plan to construct a skyscraper at the 1.15-acre site between Federal and Devonshire streets. The planning process for the site experienced several delays due in part to its prime location in downtown Boston, as well as questions surrounding how the city would spend the multi-million-dollar payout from the sale.

But the most contentious aspect of the tower’s plans involved its shadow — given its height and location, the Winthrop Square tower was expected to cast a large shadow over the Boston Common and Public Garden for up to 90 minutes on some days. A local ordinance prohibits new construction that would cast shadows on either area, but accommodations were made to allow the project to go ahead.

“I am pleased that the City Council has approved the funding from the sale of 115 Winthrop Square, paving the way for hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in affordable housing and open space in Boston,” said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, as reported by the Boston Business Journal. “The Winthrop Square project will transform a dilapidated garage into a dynamic mixed-use downtown tower, creating a more vibrant and resilient downtown while generating needed funding that will lift up our neighborhoods, and create new jobs and opportunities for our residents.”   

Millennium Partners plans on building a 691 foot mixed- use skyscraper dubbed Winthrop Center for an estimated $1.3 billion. The company has organized a groundbreaking event with the invitation: “A project for all of Boston, Winthrop Center is a bold new blueprint for private and public partnership that will extend far beyond downtown for generations to come.” Mayor Walsh is expected to be the guest of honor at the event.

Plans for Winthrop Center currently include room for around 500 condo units and 750,000 square feet of office space, with an estimated completion date of 2022.