Ferdinand Building Renovation + Addition | Dudley Sq | Roxbury

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briv

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From yesterdsay's Herald:
The Boston Herald said:
Leaders laud plan to move school headquarters to Dudley Square
By Jerry Kronenberg, Natalie Sherman and Marie Szaniszlo | Friday, March 4, 2011

A bold plan by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to revitalize beleaguered Dudley Square by relocating the Boston Public Schools headquarters yesterday was enthusiastically hailed by members of the community and school officials.

?With Dudley being in the dead center of the city, it makes sense,? said School Committee Chairman Gregory G. Groover Sr., who lives in Roxbury and noted the site is within walking distance of a dozen schools. ?What better way to make Boston Public Schools more accessible than to be located in the very neighborhood where so many of the district?s students live??

Construction at the site ? the old Ferdinand Furniture building, a once-grand structure long regarded as an eyesore ? will cost $100 million to $115 million and begin within 12 months, according to the mayor. The mayor said his plan will create 350 new jobs in construction, and will lead to a revitalized Roxbury corridor.

?We will never know how great Boston can be until Dudley Square is great once again,? Menino said.

The plan would also inject millions of dollars into the crime-plagued, economically struggling community from school department employees, who would be eating at local restaurants and patronizing other nearby businesses, Groover said.

The city plans to pay for the project by selling municipal bonds that will be paid back by selling or leasing five buildings, including the current fire department headquarters on Southampton Street, 152 North St. and 174 North St., 7 Palmer St. and 43 Hawkins St.

Dot Joyce, the mayor?s spokeswoman, said public-private partnerships and federal neighborhood stabilization grants would also likely come into play.

The city will relocate 400 workers from Government Center ? and another 50 from other programs ? to the Ferdinand?s building.

Asked whether the $115 million the mayor?s plan calls for could be better spent on the cash-strapped system, which is slated for 250 layoffs, Boston Teachers Union President Richard Stutman said no.

?If the city can afford it, that?s great,? he said. ?Better to house (the department) in a neighborhood, especially in one that needs revitalization.?

But some Roxbury residents were wary, noting the state has vowed investment in the neighborhood for years, only to let plans founder.

?My first concern is that it actually happen,? Roxbury resident Sarah-Ann Shaw said. ?This is not the first time that there has been a plan for rehabilitation and the building still looks the same.?

This time, at-large City Councilor Felix Arroyo said, he is optimistic.

?(The mayor) was very specific with how he was going to do it, where the money was, where people were going to move from,? Arroyo said.

?And where he did it today was a strong place to do it ? at one of the most important speeches of the year.?

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1320923
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Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

$115 million for a rehab?? Huh?
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

Look Roxbury! There's a bone! Go get it!
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

ferdinands.jpg


Posted by Adam @ UHub, photo copyright Paul Keleher.

The official plan:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=5010
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

Menino announces his "Dudley Plan" via BRA press release:

Plan includes the realignment of city assets and a public-private development partnership

Thursday, March 3, 2011 , during his annual address to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced major new development plans for the old Ferdinand Furniture building that will revitalize the long-dormant Dudley Square neighborhood of Boston. The mayor also addressed the union protests in Wisconsin saying Boston must come together to settle union negotiations and correctly navigate a ?rough? budget road in the near future.

?We gather with gratitude for Boston?s relative good fortune through tough times,? said Mayor Menino. ?And we look ahead with confidence. As we do, there is much debate in the country about government and priorities. I weigh in today the best way I know how: not with fancy words, but with concrete action. Amid all the rhetoric, much of what we see is politicians working to get a leg up. I am about the politics of getting going. In Boston, when we hit a roadblock, we return to the drawing board, we innovate, and we move ahead.?

Mayor Menino urged that fixing the ?economic disparities? between the different neighborhoods of Boston was primary to keeping the city?s overall economic structure on track and the first to be addressed will be Dudley Square. Acknowledging that plans for the neighborhood?s revitalization were delayed because of the tough economy, Mayor Menino said the city has adjusted its strategy to fit today?s financial climate based on two principles. Step number one is to undertake the first realignment of the city?s building portfolio in decades by:

Reducing the number of city administrative office buildings from nine to four to avoid redundant maintenance and operating costs.
Relocating city departments across the city to 26 Court Street currently occupied by the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and moving BPS headquarters to Dudley Square, closer to the 56,000 students they serve and their parents.

Moving Boston Fire Department headquarters from a prime development parcel on Southampton Street to our existing city building at 1010 Massachusetts Ave. that will also become a central permitting center to serve businesses and homeowners.

Second, the City will utilize a new public-private development structure to construct the new office building at the Ferdinand Furniture building. By borrowing to redevelop the site, the City will make sure the new building serves its public purpose and will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to hire a developer to provide advice and expertise and to attract suitable retail tenants.

This unique partnership allows the City to move forward by using state-of-the-art design technology and office planning to lower construction costs, allowing a private partner to operate the building once it?s built to keep energy and maintenance costs low and affording the developer the responsibility to lease and manage retail space on the first floor. Construction will begin within 12 months, will create over 350 jobs and is estimated to cost up to $115 million.

?I know there will be pushback as we go ? ?The Ferdinand is too big or too small, the process is too fast or too slow, the project is too public or too private, it?s never going to happen or it never should,?? said Mayor Menino. ?You know what I say? It?s too important. It?s too central. It?s too urgent. We will never know how great Boston can be until Dudley Square is great once again.?
Of the well-publicized union negotiations taking place in Wisconsin, the mayor insisted that Boston come together to settle union contract negotiations and to battle the tough fiscal climate ahead. A key issue atop the mayor?s legislative agenda is the formation of a Group Insurance Commission (GIC) for the City, one that mimics the same commission currently operating at the state level. As health insurance for City of Boston employees will increase more than $25 million this year and reach almost $300 million overall, a city GIC incorporating equal numbers of union, city and independent representation to design employee health care plans will save more than $1 million a month.

?Let me say this about the debate over public unions that is happening in Wisconsin and sweeping the country ? solving our budget challenges is about bringing people together, not driving them apart,? said Mayor Menino. ?Middle class work with decent benefits, on the one hand, and innovation and progress, on the other, are not mutually exclusive. I believe in collective bargaining. We are living in different times and our negotiations have to meet those new needs. On health care reform this means flexibility in plan design, giving cities the same power the state has.?

As negotiations with the Boston Teachers Union continue, city officials are bargaining for making available more time in the classrooms for students, the flexibility to assign teachers where they are most needed and the ability to evaluate teachers for rewards.

?If we move away from a contract that serves adult interests: the kids are going to learn,? said Mayor Menino. ?As mayors from around the Commonwealth go to the State House next week to talk about benefits reform, people at the extremes will say these are the new fault lines. We know better in Boston. Ours is a simple story of dollars and sense. There?s no political agenda. No power struggle. We just can?t afford the benefits of years past and we can?t do new things the same old way. Those who will say Massachusetts is the next front overstate the case but if we don?t make reasonable changes here time could prove them right.?
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Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

$115 million?
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

That's more than half the cost of the new Newton North High School. Couldn't they use an abandoned school in Roxbury or Dorchester?
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

$115 million and we lose the cool mural, too.

They could build something new more cheaply on one of the dozens of vacant lots all over Dudley.
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

So in other words, even with all sorts of government breaks and freebies nobody in the private sector is willing to touch this area with a ten foot pole and the city needs to step in to save face(on our dime). I'm sure it's going to work swimmingly since government property always does wonders to liven up an area!
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

czsz said:
$115 million and we lose the cool mural, too.

They could build something new more cheaply on one of the dozens of vacant lots all over Dudley.
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Or Parcel 25...

If they were to build new, though, we would just get another cheap building that we would all criticize...
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

datadyne007 said:
Or Parcel 25...

If they were to build new, though, we would just get another cheap building that we would all criticize...
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data -- I think we are talking mini Filenes's Hole

The Ferdinand fascade + a new building behind it

Here is more detail from the official City of Boston site
Dudley Plan

http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=5010

http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/uploads/27765_52_4_32.pdf

http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/uploads/8529_52_4_32.pdf

http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/uploads/44118_52_4_32.pdf



Here is a Google Map + street view

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&c...esult&ct=image&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCAQ8gEwAA
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

Owners slam city’s plan to take Roxbury buildings
By Thomas Grillo
Thursday, December 1, 2011 - Added 7 hours ago
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The landlord of a Dudley Square property the city plans to seize by eminent domain told the Herald yesterday he’s boiling mad and vowed to battle the Menino administration in court to stop the planned taking.

“This is America, what right do they have to take my building?” said Gaston Safar of G.S. Realty, who owns 2304-2306 Washington St. “I will find a lawyer today to fight it.”

This week, the Boston Redevelopment Authority expanded its long-delayed plan to renovate the vacant Ferdinand Building in Roxbury, announcing plans to seize two nearby properties along Washington Street. Under the new proposal, the city would build a $115 million seven-story headquarters for the Boston School Department by combining the three properties. City officials said they need to take Safar’s four-story building and another property to complete a “comprehensive redevelopment of the block.”

Chunok Butler, owner of Manhattan Square Fashion on the first floor of Safar’s building, said she was puzzled when BRA officials came to her store Tuesday to tell her of the plan to take the building. “I didn’t understand what they were talking about,” she said. “I’ve been here for 20 years, I don’t know what I’ll do. They’re going to just put me out? Will they give me money to move?”

Kay Kang, owner of Simon’s Fish Market — which still has signs up announcing its grand opening two months ago — said she, too, did not understand the news from city officials Tuesday. “I spent lots of money to set up the store, and customers like it. I don’t want to move,” she said.

Susan Elsbree, a BRA spokeswoman, said city officials visited Butler and Kang, both Korean natives, again with interpreters yesterday. “We went out with translators to make sure they fully understood what the city was planning, understanding that perhaps English was not the best language to communicate with them,” she said. “We are translating all of the legal documents into Korean for them. Our goal is to help relocate them in Dudley Square.”

While Mayor Thomas M. Menino has made the revitalization of Dudley Square a priority and vowed to move employees there from several city-owned administrative office buildings, Safar questioned how the city could afford it. “Why do they want to do such a huge project when there is no money in the city of Boston’s budget?” he said.

-— thomas.grillo@bostonherald.com
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http://www.bostonherald.com/busines...roxbury_buildings/srvc=business&position=also
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

Mayor OKs seizure of two Dudley properties for school HQ
Welcome to Menino square
By Thomas Grillo
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - Updated 2 days ago
+ Recent Articles


A long-delayed plan to renovate the Ferdinand Building in Roxbury’s Dudley Square into a seven-story headquarters for the Boston School Department is getting more ambitious.

City officials told the Herald they plan to seize two nearby properties — the Curtis and J. S. Waterman buildings on Washington Street — by eminent domain. The land occupied by the pair of four-story buildings, whose historic facades will be preserved, is going to be integrated into a larger plan to house city departments under one roof.

“We concluded that unless we controlled and integrated these two remaining buildings that are in private ownership, we would never have a comprehensive redevelopment of the block,” said Kairos Shen, the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s planning director. “The mayor’s goal is to transform the square and these buildings occupy an important corner.”

Darnell Williams, chairman of the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee, hailed the idea. “Anything that will enhance Roxbury’s future and change the makeup of the current business offerings in the square is something I favor,” he said.

City officials notified the building’s owners yesterday and knocked on doors of the properties’ small business tenants including Metro PCS, a boutique and a fish market to notify them of the city’s intentions. “The owners get fair market value as determined by a judge, and we will provide relocation services to tenants and work to keep them in the square,” said Susan Elsbree, a BRA spokeswoman.

For years, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has promised to revitalize Dudley Square and last March he presented his $115 million vision to shift employees from several city-owned administrative office buildings to Dudley Square. City officials said yesterday that taking the two additional buildings wouldn’t change the project’s final cost and now 500 — instead of 400 — of the city’s school department employees from 14 disparate locations will move to the new Dudley Square site.

-— thomas.grillo@bostonherald.com
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http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1384722&srvc=next_article

Is this even LEGAL?
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

Eminent domain?

There ... there have been a few court cases on the issue.

The answer has generally been ... "yes".
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

It should be legal, as it fits the original idea behind eminent domain. This is a much more proper usage than the various schemes involving eminent domain for properties that are then flipped to private developers. I hope they properly compensate the tenants, and not just the landlords.
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

But why do they need to take over active storefronts? Why can't they instead either a) build additional floors on the Ferdinand building or b) use the adjacent buildings but leave the businesses on the ground floor ...?
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

TheRifleman said:
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1384722&srvc=next_article

Is this even LEGAL?
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a great question.

50 years ago, the Supreme Court probably would've ruled that it was. At the time, in the rush to push through "urban renewal" schemes the Court dismissed a lot of the lawsuits by private property owners whose property was seized by local governments.

More recently, however, the courts (the Supreme court as well as regional/local-level federal and state courts) have pivoted and are now much more protective of property rights.

This particular use (abuse) of eminent domain sounds *highly* fishy, and having closely followed the recent eminent-domain cases in New York (both Columbia University's Manhattanville campus and the Atlantic Yards project involved property seizures by eminent domain, and both were highly controversial), I would think that even if a court ruled in favor of the city, it would not by any means be an in-the-bag outcome for the city.

If anyone has any way to get in touch with the affected property owners, I would urge them to encourage them to find a good lawyer.
 
Re: Dudley Sq's Ferdinand Building to be Restored/ Renovated

Supreme Court feels otherwise. The New Haven (I think it was New Haven, but definitely in Conn.) case resulted in a very loose interpretation of "public good" in terms of imminent domain. Economic Development was considered public good by the US Supreme Court, and this development is far more clear cut than the SC case, which allowed the city to take property and sell to a private developer who was going to redevelop the property.

Though your New York examples were controversial, I think a similar issue was decided in NY Supreme Court, in which it was ruled legal for NYC to take private property and sell it to the developers of the NY Times office tower in Midtown. Again, the public good was loosely defined a "economic development".
 
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