315 on A | 315 A Street | Fort Point

Re: 319 A Street Rear

whighlander said:
No offence Tmac -- but beside being big and apparently getting bigger by building a bunch of towers -- what is São Paulo noted for having achieved?
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Erm...I'm not sure what your point is? I was just commenting on two starkly different development environments. There's no need to be a dick about it.

For what it's worth, São Paulo actually isn't getting much bigger. The immense amount of construction is a result of economic growth & an increasing standard of living...not a population boom like the Sun Belt cities of the US.

What has São Paulo achieved? To be honest, I don't know all that much. I've only lived here for three months. I can't tell you much more than you're gonna find on its Wiki page, but...I know it's incredibly rich in history, seeing as was settled in 1554 and has basically always been the Alpha city of Brasil.. Other than that, it was the first permanent Portuguese settlement on the planet and the former capital city of Brasil. It's by far the biggest city economically and quickly rising on the world stage in terms of power.

To go along with being big, it's an extremely diverse, cosmopolitan city. Italian & Portuguese are the two main ethnicities (accounting for roughly 9 million people), but there are over 1 million Arabs in the city, 665k Japanese (more than California & Hawai'i--the two most Japanese populated American states--combined), 400k Germans, 250k French, and 150k Greeks, just to name a few.

I suppose one of the most amazing achievements by São Paulo has been its crime-fighting of the past decade. In the early 2000s, São Paulo--like much of Brasil--was incredibly violent. Its murder rate in 2000 was something like 55 murders per 100k people. Comparatively, Detroit in the past decade has averaged about 40/100k. In 2010, the murder rate had dropped to 12 per 100k. That's on par with Boston, which in 2010 had a murder rate of 11.3 per 100k. I'd say that's pretty amazing.

Other than that, I think a great deal of São Paulo's greatest achievements are ahead of it. Brasil is quickly becoming a world power (it recently passed the UK for the world's 6th largest economy), and I guess that's one of the exciting things about being here. The São Paulo Metrô and CPTM are currently building 7 additional subway lines and have three others proposed. As I said before, the construction here isn't the growth of the city. It's the transformation into the first world. I'm really hoping to get a job soon, because it's something I want to be apart of. But...we'll see.
 
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Re: 319 A Street Rear

whighlander said:
No offence Tmac -- but beside being big and apparently getting bigger by building a bunch of towers -- what is São Paulo noted for having achieved?
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What an stunningly myopic worldview.
Do you mean apart from being globally recognized for architecture, art, cuisine, nightlife, or its position as the economic engine of South America?
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

tmac9wr said:
Erm...I'm not sure what your point is? I was just commenting on two starkly different development environments. There's no need to be a dick about it.

For what it's worth, São Paulo actually isn't getting much bigger. The immense amount of construction is a result of economic growth & an increasing standard of living...not a population boom like the Sun Belt cities of the US.

What has São Paulo achieved? To be honest, I don't know all that much. I've only lived here for three months. I can't tell you much more than you're gonna find on its Wiki page, but...I know it's incredibly rich in history, seeing as was settled in 1554 and has basically always been the Alpha city of Brasil.. Other than that, it was the first permanent Portuguese settlement on the planet and the former capital city of Brasil. It's by far the biggest city economically and quickly rising on the world stage in terms of power.

To go along with being big, it's an extremely diverse, cosmopolitan city. Italian & Portuguese are the two main ethnicities (accounting for roughly 9 million people), but there are over 1 million Arabs in the city, 665k Japanese (more than California & Hawai'i--the two most Japanese populated American states--combined), 400k Germans, 250k French, and 150k Greeks, just to name a few.

I suppose one of the most amazing achievements by São Paulo has been its crime-fighting of the past decade. In the early 2000s, São Paulo--like much of Brasil--was incredibly violent. Its murder rate in 2000 was something like 55 murders per 100k people. Comparatively, Detroit in the past decade has averaged about 40/100k. In 2010, the murder rate had dropped to 12 per 100k. That's on par with Boston, which in 2010 had a murder rate of 11.3 per 100k. I'd say that's pretty amazing.

Other than that, I think a great deal of São Paulo's greatest achievements are ahead of it. Brasil is quickly becoming a world power (it recently passed the UK for the world's 6th largest economy), and I guess that's one of the exciting things about being here. The São Paulo Metrô and CPTM are currently building 7 additional subway lines and have three others proposed. As I said before, the construction here isn't the growth of the city. It's the transformation into the first world. I'm really hoping to get a job soon, because it's something I want to be apart of. But...we'll see.
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Game, set and match. Brazil has been a premier economic performer the past few years. Evidently, they aren't afraid to grow.
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

shmessy said:
Game, set and match. Brazil has been a premier economic performer the past few years. Evidently, they aren't afraid to grow.
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Entirely on the back of their commodities boom, particularly oil. They haven't been afraid to drill off their coast, and that has powered their entire boom. Economy is slowing down big-time there now, though.
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

The following is a condition for approval by the Boston Redevelopment Authority filed in the latest Notice of Project Change for 49-63 Melcher Street, the companion project to 319 A Street Rear.

******
To help promote the City's Innovation District, donation of
approximately 1,500 square feet of space at 319 A Street Front, a
building owned by the Proponent, for lease at a reduced rent by
innovation economy businesses.
******

In Fort Point, a district of 85% office space, the Boston Redevelopment Authority now sees fit to REQUIRE SUBSIDIZED OFFICE SPACE for innovation economy companies as a condition of approval for development of new construction.
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

itchy said:
Entirely on the back of their commodities boom, particularly oil. They haven't been afraid to drill off their coast, and that has powered their entire boom. Economy is slowing down big-time there now, though.
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Oil has absolutely helped, but there is a lot more than oil...one of the primary drivers of the economy is livestock. Brasil is the largest livestock producer in the world, and they basically feed India and China. So as those two economies continue to grow--and the standard of living rises as a result--so will Brasil. We'll see how things go with this potential property bubble in China...but I think it helps Brasil that food is a consumer staple, not discretionary. Either way, we'll see.

I don't see what's wrong about riding a commodities boom. I mean, wasn't early United States' economy commodity driven? There are plenty of factories here, but the standard of living (and therefore pay rate) is higher here than it is in India or China. There's almost no chance for them to compete with Asia in that sense. Brasil is definitely doing its best to diversify its economy. São Paulo in particular is growing in financial services, with the largest stock exchange in Latin America and I believe the highest GFCI ranking of any Latin American city. There are many roadblocks for Brasil, particularly the taxes (which are mainly the result of corruption...basically everyone needs to get a piece of the pie, so the consumers here really pay for it).

Anyway, I didn't think my comment would have sidetracked the entire thread, so I apologize.
 
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Re: 319 A Street Rear

Sicilian said:
The following is a condition for approval by the Boston Redevelopment Authority filed in the latest Notice of Project Change for 49-63 Melcher Street, the companion project to 319 A Street Rear.

******
To help promote the City's Innovation District, donation of
approximately 1,500 square feet of space at 319 A Street Front, a
building owned by the Proponent, for lease at a reduced rent by
innovation economy businesses.
******

In Fort Point, a district of 85% office space, the Boston Redevelopment Authority now sees fit to REQUIRE SUBSIDIZED OFFICE SPACE for innovation economy companies as a condition of approval for development of new construction.
Click to expand...

I don't understand this whatsoever. In what world do these people live in?
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

I'm not sure how it can be legal to press developers to subsidize leases for one preferred business sector over another business sector.

That said, the BRA has been playing favorites in the realty business for a few years now. Maybe they draw a REMAX commission because a good majority of their Seaport activities (working privately with private companies) involves directing traffic -- essentially playing realty agent for spaces in existing wharf buildings requiring NO investment in new construction.

It is fair to say (looking at word clouds on BRA posts) that a very small, select group of tech companies have garnered the most significant benefit from BRA public relations efforts over the past 2 years.

But the BRA calling for lease subsidies exclusively for "innovation economy businesses" is by far the boldest example I've seen since the linkage debacle of year 2000. It smacks of cronyism.
 
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Re: 319 A Street Rear

Sicilian said:
I'm not sure how it can be legal to press developers to subsidize leases for one preferred business sector over another business sector.

That said, the BRA has been playing favorites in the realty business for a few years now. Maybe they draw a REMAX commission because a good majority of their Seaport activities (working privately with private companies) involves directing traffic -- essentially playing realty agent for spaces in existing wharf buildings requiring NO investment in new construction.

It is fair to say (looking at word clouds on BRA posts) that a very small, select group of tech companies have garnered the most significant benefit from BRA public relations efforts over the past 2 years.

But the BRA calling for lease subsidies exclusively for "innovation economy businesses" is by far the boldest example I've seen since the linkage debacle of year 2000. It smacks of cronyism.
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Sicil -- Let's put it in perspective the BRA is asking for reduced rent on 1,500 sq. ft.
I don't like the idea of the BRA reguiring the discount rent -- but I'm all for the landlord making available some space to youg innovative companies at a discount rate. I was the beneficiary of such a discount on a bit more than 500 sq. ft. for a start-up which we launched in Cummings Park in Woburn back around 1997. Mr. Cummings gave us -- for no specific future considerations -- a 50% diiscount off the going tate on 500 sq. ft., most of which was a storeroom behind the freight elevator that had been used for an indoor smoking location.

I would bet, that like our space, what will be offered as the innovation space would probably be hard to lease to any "rich" company looking for a lot of space -- on the other hnd it might be perfect for the 4 or 6 person start-up with only cookie-jar money.
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

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Re: 319 A Street Rear

I'm sure this has probably been answered somewhere in this thread already, but since I don't feel like going through all the history of it... why do they have to demolish a building if there is a huge parking lot right next door?
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

Because finding a way to build on that parking lot would have made too much rational sense from a city planning perspective, and Boston planners only make the individual decisions of developers worse, never better.
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

DZH22 said:
I'm sure this has probably been answered somewhere in this thread already, but since I don't feel like going through all the history of it... why do they have to demolish a building if there is a huge parking lot right next door?
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Dz -- just possibly the developer could buy the building but the lot was not available for some reason -- many surface lots are owned by City, State, Massport, even Federal entities -- as they are in-use and would need to be replaced by another lot -- they often are hold-outs when all the surroundings which are privately owned get developed

that's one of the problems with Urban Planning -- it sometimes bumps into reality -- that's one of the reasons some "obvious" projects take decades
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

DZH22 said:
I'm sure this has probably been answered somewhere in this thread already, but since I don't feel like going through all the history of it... why do they have to demolish a building if there is a huge parking lot right next door?
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Do they own the land that is a parking lot? If not ... it's not a good idea to try to build on it.

cca
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

cca said:
Do they own the land that is a parking lot? If not ... it's not a good idea to try to build on it.

cca
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I think that the lot in question is employee parking for the USPS at Fort Point Station
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

Yes. That's the USPS parking lot.
I don't think that building has any redeeming qualities and I applaud that fact that it's getting replaced by something denser. It's not historic, it's not even brick and beam. I walked by today and noticed structural steel so it's not some handsome, old load-bearing masonry building.
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

czsz said:
Because finding a way to build on that parking lot would have made too much rational sense from a city planning perspective, and Boston planners only make the individual decisions of developers worse, never better.
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Why would they even need permision from the owners to build the high rise on that lot?
 
Re: 319 A Street Rear

AmericanFolkLegend said:
It's not historic, it's not even brick and beam.
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From Boston Landmark Commission Report:

319 A Street Rear
Built: 1923
Classical influence

As for demolition, this building's demise was anticipated prior to Fort Point landmark designation, as a component of 100 Acres Plan.
 
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