Filing Indicates Yvonne’s Owners Targeting 10 PO Sq. for Restaurant

BOSTON—The search to incorporate a restaurant at Ten Post Office Square appears to have served up a pair of restaurateurs wielding a growing reputation for trendy dining in the Hub, Christopher P. Jamison and Mark S. Malatesta. They are the inspirations between such upscale eateries as RAKU at the Godfrey Hotel and Yvonne’s, the remake of Boston’s legendary Locke-Ober in Downtown Crossing where power brokers and politicians once plied their trade.

Ten Post Office Sq. operating partner Synergy Investments, which this spring welcomed LaSalle Investment Management as majority stakeholder of the 14-story, 445,000-sf building, has been repositioning the ground floor to add modern amenities since buying the asset in 2014 with former partner GreenOak Real Estate, and the linchpin has been a block of space previously occupied by LandVest. A deal was struck to free up that portion and ever since, talk of a restaurant has been in the mix.

A call to Synergy principal Maura Griffith Moffatt to discuss the matter was not immediately returned. While several retail-sector sources spoken to tell Real Reporter they are unaware of any negotiations underway between those groups, one indication a deal has been in the works is a filing with the Massachusetts Division of Corporations named “CMG 10 PO Square LLC” and listing Jamison and Malatesta as managers. The LLC’s stated business purpose is to “. . . operate a restaurant with appurtenant ancillary facilities such as a private club . . .”

A call to the Bernkopf Goodman attorney listed on that filing, Martin C. Pomeroy, was not immediately returned.

Yvonne’s opened to great fanfare in 2015 largely due to the venerable supper club it was replacing, with Locke-Ober ruling the roost at 2 Winter Place from the Civil War until 2012 when the remainder of the building was converted to condominiums. Yvonne’s is named after a private club in the basement which was part of Locke-Ober. The Godfrey Hotel entry arrived in late 2016, the fare of which is Peruvian. Located at 505 Washington St., the hotel is owned by a German investment fund.

Jamison and Malatesta are principals of COJE Management Group with an address of 2 Oliver St. That interestingly is another Financial District office building that Synergy once had a stake in as operating partner until harvesting it in summer 2015. It is right around the corner from Ten Post Office Sq. The firm led by founder David Greaney is a major property owner downtown which most recently made news in the Real Reporter with its purchase of Center Plaza at Government Center for $365 million.

One of the retail brokerage professionals spoken to who was not aware of any talks about a restaurant for 10 Post Office Sq. does opine the building would benefit substantially from the involvement of the two successful restaurateurs. “That is pretty wild,” the observer says of such a prospect, and the professional deems the LLC filing “pretty strong evidence” there is a measure of interest in the address cited.

Maura Moffatt

David Greaney