Boston: Hynes Convention Center (Back Bay)#

Opened: 1988 (replaced 1963 Hynes Auditorium). Exhibit space: 176,480 sq ft. Walk Score: 97.

The convention center the neighborhood fought to keep.

What Was Here Before#

The Back Bay was tidal mudflats until the 1850s–1880s landfill (gravel brought by rail from Needham, 24 hours a day at peak). The Hynes site, in the western portion near Gloucester and Dalton Streets, was filled around 1871–1880. For the next 70+ years, the site was occupied by Boston & Albany Railroad rail yards — freight operations, coach storage, and maintenance facilities. The residential brownstone grid of Back Bay (Commonwealth Ave, Marlborough, Beacon) developed to the north; the rail yards were the southern boundary.

In the late 1950s, the declining rail yards were cleared as part of the Prudential Center urban renewal project. The nearby Mechanics Building (1881, 200,000+ sq ft exhibition hall on Huntington Avenue) was demolished in 1959 for the Prudential complex. The Hynes War Memorial Auditorium (1963), named for Mayor John B. Hynes, was partly the Mechanics Building’s functional successor — the city needed a new exhibition space after demolishing the old one.

Residential displacement was minimal compared to other Boston urban renewal projects (notably the West End) because the site was railroad infrastructure, not a neighborhood. The 1988 rebuild “attempted to relate in scale and materials to its Back Bay setting, adopting granite and setbacks.”

What’s Here Now#

The Hynes is embedded in one of America’s most walkable urban districts:

• Connected via covered walkways to Prudential Center and Copley Place
• Sheraton Boston physically attached; 3,100+ hotel rooms in the connected complex
• 200+ shops and restaurants in the surrounding neighborhood, including Newbury Street boutiques
• MBTA Green Line (Hynes Convention Center station) and Orange Line / Commuter Rail / Amtrak (Back Bay station) via passageways
• 38 meeting rooms, 24,544 sq ft ballroom — right-sized for mid-range groups

The Sale Attempt (2019–2023)#

In September 2019, Governor Charlie Baker proposed selling the Hynes to fund a $500 million BCEC expansion in South Boston. MCCA Executive Director David Gibbons called the Hynes “an industrial building in the middle of a very elegant neighborhood.” Baker described it as “basically dark almost all the time.”

The opposition was fierce and broad:

• UNITE HERE Local 26 organized rallies. Darryl Singletary, a 36-year Hynes employee: “It’s going to cripple a lot of families. We helped build this city. Do not leave us behind.”
• Back Bay Association president Meg Mainzer-Cohen demanded meeting space be preserved in any redevelopment.
• Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay chair Elliott Laffer called the Hynes “perhaps the best-located convention center in the United States.”
• State Senator Will Brownsberger hosted a town hall, said he would “strongly” oppose the sale: “Public space is where everybody is equal, and by reducing public space, it promotes inequality.”
• City Councilor Kenzie Bok: “This is a public parcel, and so we really have to be thinking about the public value.”

The Legislature killed the sale through inaction across two sessions (2019–2020, 2022). In June 2023, Governor Healey appointed opponents Meg Mainzer-Cohen and Carlos Aramayo (UNITE HERE president) to the MCCA board. Gibbons was ousted in November 2023.

Current Status#

The Hynes is alive and investing:

• $100 million, five-year renovation underway (through early 2029)
• New CEO Marcel Vernon: “We are committed to the Hynes, and we are committed to ensuring a resurgence occurs.”
• FY2018 economic impact: $250 million from 108 events
• The BCEC expansion Baker wanted to fund is itself on hold — a March 2025 Pinnacle study found 800–1,000 new hotel rooms needed in the Seaport before the $1.9B expansion should proceed

What Happened#

The occupancy rate was 44% — worse than the BCEC’s 65%. The building needed $200M+ in deferred maintenance. On paper, the numbers supported selling.

The neighborhood said no. Hotels, workers, residents, and elected officials formed a coalition that outlasted two governors. Their argument: convention foot traffic at a walkable venue disperses into surrounding businesses. FY2018 economic impact from the Hynes was $250 million from 108 events — economic value that doesn’t appear in the MCCA’s P&L but does appear in Back Bay cash registers.

Why the Neighborhood Fought#

The key to the Hynes fight is geographic. The Hynes and the BCEC are in different neighborhoods — Back Bay and the Seaport, 1.5 miles apart. Closing the Hynes would not shift convention foot traffic one block; it would shift it to a different neighborhood with different restaurants, different hotels, and different cash registers. Back Bay’s $250 million in annual convention-driven economic activity would move to the Seaport.

The opposition wasn’t defending a convention center. It was defending a neighborhood’s economic base against relocation.

This geographic separation distinguishes Boston from cities where dual facilities serve the same neighborhood. In Seattle, the Arch and Summit are two blocks apart (7th & Pike vs. 9th & Pine). Convention foot traffic to the surrounding neighborhood is maintained by the Summit regardless of the Arch’s use. The neighborhood economic argument that saved the Hynes does not have the same structure in Seattle’s case.

See also: Boston BCEC (the other Boston convention center) | Seattle Arch (same year, one block from its partner)