TD Garden owner Delaware North will unveil "several snazzy additions" to the venue this season, including Rafters Club -- the "conversion of a little-used floor at the very top of the Garden into high-end hang space for Bruins and Celtics fans," according to Tim Logan of the BOSTON GLOBE. Once $100M in upgrades to TD Garden are finished later this fall, fans at Rafters Club will be able to "stand at a long bar with a killer view of Boston Harbor" on one side and turn around to "watch the hockey game seven stories below." Fans for $1,600 a year can "buy a membership" to Rafters Club, allowing them to then "buy 'access passes' to individual games." TD Garden President Amy Latimer said, "That's the future. People want to be here, in the building, part of it all -- but not necessarily in a fixed seat." Logan noted that is a "big part of the thinking behind the 60,000 square feet of space the Garden was able to add as part of the massive Hub on Causeway project next door." There are "expanded concourses with huge bars and big-screen TVs; roomier club areas, in various price tiers, for those who might want to entertain while they take in a game; and food upgrades, with more food-truck fare and 'signature cocktails'." Latimer: "We want people to come early. And we want them to stay late" (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/20). In Buffalo, Tim O'Shei noted the Jacobs family, which owns Delaware North and the Bruins, is "working with the development company Boston Properties" on the $1.1B Hub on Causeway. The multiyear project includes "high-end apartments, office space, restaurants, a hotel, concert hall, cinema" and Star Market grocery (BUFFALO NEWS, 9/21).
