Copley Place Expansion and Tower | Back Bay

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Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

After thinking about it, I'm OK with the hopeful start date of 2015 if CSC plans to start in early 2014.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

If somebody says something will be built in Boston in 2 years, always double it to 4 years.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

^ At least. I ain't holding my breath.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Czervik.Construction said:
Not to whine and complain, but why an almost 2 year delay?
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Need a ton of approvals and the project from a CA perspective is an absolute nightmare. There are so many studies that need to be done for figuring out the construction schedule, road closures, etc.

What's nice about Filene's and why it could sail through is that the building/block was able to closed completely when the construction/demo originally began and now construction can be resumed at a very accelerated rate because the hole is already dug.

Now consider Copley Place's situation of doing all of this while a gigantic mall and office complex continues operation and all the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in that area.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

^ And with an active highway running underneath. That right there is what technically makes this an air rights project and introduces a whole 'nother level of red tape.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Ned, where are you? You're a smart guy! You knew this project was just in its beginning phase.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Add to all that, the building is not "designed" yet. The renderings are great, but the building itself is not designed. That's one year.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

From where do you get the "25%" affordable residential units figure for the Copley Place Reconstruction Project? If only 71 of the 542 residential units being constructed are "affordable," then wouldn't less than 14% of the newly-constructed residential units in this Copley Place Reconstruction Project be "affordable"?
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Presumably it's ~130 units, not 71, then, if it's 25%.

Regardless, how is this a reason to therefore reject the project and build nothing at all? Would you rather have 71 apartments that are "affordable" (whatever that means) and 470 that are market rate and will relieve pressure on overall housing stock - or nothing? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

datadyne007 said:
Me too! I was sitting there like uh, duh. I face-palmed at that. Honestly, I would rather have SIMON keep this entire tower market rate and then build truly affordable units in Roxbury or something.
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The Simon Property Group's latest construction proposal would apparently still violate the Land Use Restrictions of the HUD-funded Copley Place Project that are mandated in its Master Deed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts--by reducing the percentage of constructed residential units on the Copley Place Project that are affordable to low-income individuals or families from 25 percent to below 14 percent.

Only 13 percent of the 542 additional residential units that Simon Property Group is now proposing to construct on the Copley Place land that it leases from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation are going to be “affordable” rental units.

Yet--like the premises of the apartment building on Copley Place project land at 16 Harcourt Street—the premises of Simon Property Group’s proposed additional residential units at the Copley Place project are subject to “the requirement that a minimum of 25 % of the units must be available for rent at all times to persons and families of low income” pursuant to “Schedule C of the Master Lease;” and “the provisions of this paragraph may not be amended unless such provisions as amended are consistent with the requirements to provide housing set forth in Schedule C of the Master Lease..” (See Bk. 11488/074 to 095 in Suffolk County Registry of Deeds).

So unless 135 of the additional residential units that the Simon Property Group is proposing to add in its reconstruction of the Copley Place project are to be “available for rent at all times to persons and families of low income” pursuant to “Schedule C of its Master Lease" with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Simon Property Group’s Copley Place reconstruction project would still apparently still be in legal violation of the terms and restrictions of its Master Lease, and should therefore not be approved by the City of Boston.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Are you for real?

*Cough - Ned Flaherty - cough cough*
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

datadyne007 said:
This summer is shaping up to be great! Copley Place, CSC, Gov't Center Garage, Filene's...
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Agree; it's pretty exciting. Add the Garden-area highrises (Nashua St., Garden Garage and the site of the old Garden, of which at least the latter 2 seem to be moving), a good amount of the Seaport (for better/worse) and a number of Eastie, Northpoint and Fenway-area projects, and a huge backlog of significant projects I've been hoping to see realized for ages is finally going forward.

For me, I'll continue to hold out hope for a few more. If these somehow get built as well (many of them tenuous / not expected any time soon), a great proportion Boston's highest-potential underdeveloped real estate will be put to good use:

-Aquarium Garage
-Winthrop St. garage
-South Station Tower
-construction on current Gillette/other lots around A Street
-construction on the Beacon Yard former railway lots in Allston
-construction on current USPS site on Fort Point Channel
-construction over I-93 ramps near Chinatown
-High Spine / air rights construction over the Mass Pike (Columbus Center, etc.)
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

^You need to add this project to your waiting list...it ain't happening for at least four years.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

Beacon Park isn't going anywhere for a long time. There is talk of realigning the Pike first.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

@NeimanMarcusWatch: Let's try a different angle...

Who cares?? So what if all the units sell for over $10million? What position in life do you hold that this is such a big deal to you? Please answer this, because I am very curious why someone would waste their brain capacity with this knowledge? And who are you trying to benefit?

So instead of spewing a bunch of Rainman statistics, get personal and open up a bit. That's your only shot of potentially swaying any opinions here.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

type001 said:
@NeimanMarcusWatch: Let's try a different angle...

Who cares?? So what if all the units sell for over $10million? What position in life do you hold that this is such a big deal to you? Please answer this, because I am very curious why someone would waste their brain capacity with this knowledge? And who are you trying to benefit?

So instead of spewing a bunch of Rainman statistics, get personal and open up a bit. That's your only shot of potentially swaying any opinions here.
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NMW, More units = more affordable units.

Just because the government doesn't subsidize them, doesn't mean it isn't helping the poorer have more units they can afford. Supply and demand. Currently the supply does not meet the demand in the Boston area. Building as many units as possible is the best way to lower the cost of renting for the poor. It's as if people believe apartments/condos create people. These people will move from somewhere, don't you see? It is an issue of supply.
 
Re: Copley Place plan calls for condo tower

It doesn't really matter, the City isn't obliged to enforce an agreement between a private party and the State.
 
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