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South Station tower stretching to 678 feet could advance in 2019

It’s one of the longer-running question marks in Boston real estate: Will a tower go up atop South Station?

Recall that Hines, a Houston-based development and investment firm, has been trying to build a major complex atop New England’s busiest train and bus hub now for several years. Because of the number of stakeholders in the project—the MBTA (a.k.a. the state), Amtrak, the City of Boston, the developer itself—as well as the scope, negotiations over the tower have dragged on and on.

Now, the MBTA is granting Hines another six months to negotiate for what would be a 678-foot spire out of the center of South Station. By April 30, Hines hopes to have the requisite agreements in place to advance the project.

Its current plans call for an 862,000-square-foot addition that would erupt out of the station at the ninth of 51 floors and include 641,000 square feet of office space, 166 condos, and 6,000 square feet of retail as well as parking for 895 cars.