Re: Bayside Expo Center Redevelopment
Corcoran closing loop on Bayside redevelopment
by Michelle Hillman Boston Business Journal
Friday, August 1, 2008
The Bayside Expo & Conference Center will close next year, and if all goes as planned, it will be replaced by an initial wave of development that includes 250,000 square feet of retail space, 300 units of rental housing and 100,000 square feet of offices.
On June 30, Corcoran Jennison Cos., owner the 28-acre waterfront site, filed a development plan with the Boston Redevelopment Authority and has commenced public meetings to vet the plan?s first phase, a $300 million project on Columbia Point in Dorchester.
Corcoran?s initial plans call for the demolition of the 280,000-square-foot Bayside Expo Center and the preservation of an existing 125,000-square-foot office building on the site. The firm also expects to add 75 rooms and 10,0000 square feet of meeting space to the site?s 198-room Doubletree Club Hotel Boston.
Neighbors and community activists have already raised concerns about traffic and congestion at a public meeting hearing held July 21. The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 4.
The project?s total cost will be approximately $700 million, said Jim Gribaudo, project director for Corcoran Jennison. Those estimates include the cost to construct an additional 650 residential units in as many as six buildings.
Bayside?s redevelopment was first announced last year after the center saw a significant drop in revenue ? some of it stemming from business gravitating to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
Bayside?s bookings have dropped from 43 in 2006 to 19 this year. The Expo Center has seven shows booked next year, said Catherine O?Neill, director of community relations at Corcoran Jennison.
O?Neill said the Bayside will likely close in March 2009.
Gribaudo said he wants to secure the necessary permits before seeking financing. In order to fund construction projects today, lenders want evidence of signed leases ? something Gribaudo called a bit of a Catch-22 because tenants are unlikely to jump on board until projects are formally filed and approved.
Gribaudo hopes to lease 50,000 square feet of the retail space to a grocery store and is seeking two other anchor tenants to lease about 20,000 square feet apiece. The remainder of the retail space, about 180,000 square feet, will be leased to smaller retailers, such as a dry cleaner or coffee shop.
As Corcoran is moving ahead with its plans for Bayside Expo Center, the BRA is devising a master plan for Columbia Point, an area that comprises 412 acres along Dorchester Bay.
?It?s an extraordinary site, but you have to be considerate of that,? said BRA director John Palmieri, alluding to the area?s density, open space and water-access challenges.
Both Palmieri and Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association, described the Bayside Expo Center redevelopment as the creation of a ?new neighborhood.?
Li said she believed the project would complement many of the already-planned changes to the area, such as a proposal to add dorms to the University of Massachusetts-Boston campus and a plan to expand the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.
?We think it?s absolutely crucial to tie together all the planning for the Dorchester waterfront,? she said.
Link