The sale of a $600,000 liquor license from a shuttered Downtown Crossing restaurant to the developer of a 17-story high-rise in the Seaport district was approved by Boston officials last week.

The license purchase continues a post-pandemic trend of the restaurant and bar business shifting from Downtown, once bustling with workers, to surrounding neighborhoods such as the Seaport, home to several biotech companies with employees that must work on-site due to the nature of the business.

John Hynes IV, lead on the $600-million 10 World Trade commercial development project for Boston Global Investors and a company vice president, was given the go-ahead to buy the closed Silvertone Bar & Grill’s license on Thursday by the Boston Licensing Board, his attorney said.

For now, Hynes will be the restaurant manager for the $3-million, three-story section of the planned 17-floor life sciences office and lab building.

“[Hynes] has talked to several well-known Boston and Boston-area restaurant operators to come in and operate the premises,” Stephen Miller, the licensing attorney on the project, told MassLive. “It’ll be much easier for him to work with them with a license committed to the premises.”

Hynes, who could not be reached for comment, has 12 years of experience as a bartender and waiter, Miller said. He also meets other requirements, such as being a U.S. citizen living in the state and knowing Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) regulations.

Plans over the next couple of months include identifying a restaurant group and the approval process for a management agreement with the Licensing Board and ABCC, Miller said, adding Hynes would be removed as manager of record afterward.

The previous liquor license owner, Silvertone Bar & Grill on Bromfield Street in Downtown Crossing, closed at the start of summer after its owner, David Savoie, said the business never recovered from the economic impacts of the COVID pandemic.

“We’re below nine floors of offices with 0% occupancy. Our lunch and after-work crowd paid the bills,” Savoie, who owned the restaurant since 2016, told The Boston Globe in June.

At the time, he was unsure what would become of the space where Silvertone was located, and told the Globe, “Nobody is going to spend $600,000 on a liquor license” to open a restaurant or bar there.

Miller said the transfer of the liquor license from the Downtown Crossing to Seaport is indicative of how Boston’s restaurant business is shifting post-pandemic, as Downtown is no longer “vital.”

“The Downtown is not fully recovered from the pandemic,” he said.

Over the past few years, employees split their time between the office and working remotely, while others are now fully remote.

“Restaurant businesses in the downtown Financial District are struggling, and places are closing, so people that are looking for licenses — whether it’s for the Back Bay or Seaport — are finding opportunities with places that can’t sustain their overhead business in the downtown Financial District,” Miller said.

“It’s the facts of life, unfortunately, right now; hopefully, it’ll change over the next year or two years; if offices are back and the people are back, downtown will become vital again, but right now it’s not,” Miller said.

Construction for Hynes’ 10 World Trade Center project began at 401 Congress St. in March 2022 and is expected to be finished by the fourth quarter of 2024. The Massachusetts Port Authority awarded the development designation in 2018 to a joint venture of Hynes IV’s company, Boston Global Investors, as well as Bastion Companies, EDGE and Cogsville Capital Group.

The glassy structure is located at multiple crossroads, including the multi-story intersection of Congress Street and World Trade Center Avenue and the gap between the lower Seaport and Summer Street.

It’s also near the Interstate 90 off-ramp and walkways and plans call for a pedestrian bridge to another building called the “Triangle Parcel,” part of the project being built on an adjacent half-acre lot.

The architectural concept of the “landmark development” includes a seemingly upside-down design of increased floor sizes as it gets taller, and will have views of the harbor and city’s skyline.

“Dramatic archways” will encapsulate the lobby, which leads to its 555,250-square-foot interior. Floors three through 10 of the building will be devoted to life sciences and lab space, and floors 11 through 16 will be office space.

Additionally, two acres of sustained outdoor space will be on the property. Plans call for 10,250 square feet of retail and cultural space.

“By the time 10 World Trade is done, it’ll be unlike anything else in the market,” Hynes IV said in a statement on the project’s documentation website.

“This project has really seen it all. It’s been through the wringer, and it’s never sacrificed any of its integrity along the way. In fact, quite the opposite, we’ve doubled down at every opportunity to deliver something even better, than what we initially set out to build,” he said.

Through various new initiatives, the city of Boston is encouraging residents to get on their bikes. Mayor Michelle Wu
launched a pilot initiative this week that will provide discount vouchers to eligible residents so they can buy their own e-bikes. 

The average cost of an e-bike is somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000, which makes it out of reach for many Bostonians already struggling with the high cost of housing. The
Boston E-Bikes Incentive Program aims to reduce those costs and make the environmentally conscious ride a viable option for everybody who wants one.

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston’s chief of streets, joined GBH’s All Things Considered guest host Judie Yuill to share more about the initiative and other programs that encourage residents to strap on their helmets. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Judie Yuill: Could you give us a few more details about the new program? How much are the discount vouchers, and who’s eligible for them?

Jascha Franklin-Hodge: Yeah, sure. So the vouchers range in value, depending upon the circumstances and the type of bike, but they range from $800 to $2,400. The eligibility is for what we call “income-eligible adults,” so people who make 40% or less of the median income, seniors over the age of 60 and any adult with a chronic or permanent disability.

Yuill: Now, the money for this program is from the American Rescue Plan Act, the federal pandemic relief aid legislation. Why was this program to get more people on bikes a priority for those funds?

Franklin-Hodge: Sure. You know, we have a number of projects in the transportation space that are being supported through the ARPA program. But really, we’re looking at all the ways that we can help improve mobility — especially for communities that were most affected by COVID — and to really make sure that we’re aligning the investments that we make with this transformational program with the long-term goals that we have to become a more sustainable, equitable and mobile city.

Yuill: Are people with chronic disabilities who need adaptive e-bikes also eligible for the vouchers?

Franklin-Hodge: They are — and they’re eligible for a higher dollar amount. We want to make sure that this program works for as many people as it can. We know that people with disabilities sometimes have unique or specialized needs when it comes to their mobility, so we’ve structured the program to provide a lot of flexibility for folks with a disability to be able to find the kind of equipment that works for them and is a good fit for their body and their needs.

Yuill: Now, one of the things that’s interesting about this initiative is that it seems to imply that it’s getting people to think differently about e-bikes, how useful they are, how long they can spend on them, or what they can do. Is that true?

Franklin-Hodge: Yeah, we’ve seen that a lot. So, e-bikes tend to be accessible to a lot of folks who don’t feel like they can ride a pedal bike — especially older folks or some people with a disability. We also know that the majority of the trips that we take in the Boston region are three miles or less, and that’s a perfect distance to do on an electric bike, or even a pedal bike.

We’re really trying to make e-bikes more available to folks so that they see this as an option. It’s not going to work for everyone on every trip, but for many people, e-bikes kind of open up the world of biking where they might not otherwise be able to.

I’ll say, as a parent, I spend a lot of time moving kids around, and I take my two boys to school every day on the back of an e-bike. That’s not something I’d do if I had to pedal them myself, but having that motor just makes that possible now on a bike.

Yuill: There’s also a new campaign to encourage people to use Bluebikes. Is Bluebike ridership down?

Franklin-Hodge: No, Bluebike ridership this year is up significantly. We launched e-bikes into the system at the beginning of the year — there are about 750 e-bikes in the system — and they have delivered more than half a million rides just in the first six months of the year. We’re seeing incredible popularity.

The e-bikes in June averaged more than eight rides a day, which is almost double the number of rides from our traditional bikes. We’re just seeing tremendous uptake around the system. You know, they just make it a little faster, a little less sweaty and a little easier to go longer distances on the Bluebike system.

Yuill: Can you tell us more about the campaign to get people using Bluebikes, how it works and how much it costs?

Franklin-Hodge: Yeah, absolutely. E-bikes in the Bluebike system are available to anyone who uses a Bluebike. There is an extra charge if you are using an electric bike — of 10 cents per minute for regular members and 7 cents for income-eligible members.

We also recently launched the Boston Pass, which lowers the cost of membership in the Bluebike system for Boston residents. Income-eligible members can get an annual membership for just five dollars a year, and for everybody else, the first year of membership is only $60.

We’re really trying to make it easy for people in Boston to try Bluebikes — whether they want a traditional pedal bike or an electric bike — and have affordable access to this form of transportation.

With the announcement that legendary Boston-based rockers Aerosmith are leaving their touring days behind, we thought now would be a good time to take stock of the city’s musical history — in particular, the bands and solo artists who rise highest in the area’s musical firmament.

But with so many acts to choose from, how do we pick? That’s where you come in: Using your responses to the poll below, we’ll determine a Boston music “Sweet Sixteen,” and from there, also with your help, we’ll whittle it down until we’ve determined Boston’s most iconic artist ever.

So whether you’re a fan of the aforementioned Aerosmith, new wave icons The Cars, classic blues rockers the J. Geils Band, disco diva Donna Summer, or R&B pop icons New Edition, we want to hear from you. (Or even if you like Marky Mark, whoever you are.)

Check back in a few weeks when we reveal who made the Sweet Sixteen.