Chiofaro May Expand Harbor Garage
Developer Says He Could Add 600 Cars To Structure He Wants To Tear Down
By Paul McMorrow
Banker & Tradesman Staff Writer
Today
If Don Chiofaro can't put a new building next to Harbor Towers, he says he'll settle for three more stories of parking.Ratcheting up the stakes in an already acrimonious battle with City Hall, developer Don Chiofaro is saying he could add 600 parking spots to the Harbor Garage complex he owns in partnership with Prudential Real Estate Investors.
Chiofaro is locked in a battle with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the trustees of Harbor Towers over his plans to replace the Harbor Garage with a $900 million, 1.5-million-square-foot mixed-use complex that would soar 625 feet high.
The BRA is close to signing off on guidelines that would re-zone the site, which sits between Boston Harbor and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, to a maximum height of 200 feet. Chiofara has repeatedly said a 200-foot project would not be economically feasible, and that the new Greenway zoning would force him to leave the urban renewal-era Harbor Garage standing along the Greenway.
Chiofaro held an unprecedented press conference last week. He released a report by Boston appraisers Byrne McKinney & Assoc. that argued a 200-foot project on the site would not be economically feasible for 67 years. Flanked by stone-faced ironworkers in hard hats, Chiofaro attacked Menino and the BRA?s Greenway study, while calling for a new round of dialogue and compromise.
He also moved beyond just saying strict height limits would force him to treat the garage as a real estate venture, not as a redevelopment site.
?The fact is, the garage structure can hold another 600 cars, another three levels of parking,? Chiofaro said. ?It?ll go from a 1,400-car garage to a 2,000-car garage. It makes money now, and it?ll make more money later.?
The Harbor Garage?s finances are not public, but Chiofaro has said recently it makes an annual profit of $8.5 million. Chiofaro and Prudential paid $153 million for the garage.
Chiofaro said cramming more cars on top of the concrete monolith was not his ?first, second, or third choice.?
?It?s actually a very bad idea,? he added. ?I hope we?re not left with that choice. But it is what it is. We?ll deal with that and all the other decisions we have to make when we see where this process ends.?
Last week?s press conference, and the talk of adding three stories of parking to the Harbor Garage, marked the latest turn in a bitter, years-long clash between the Chiofaro Co. and City Hall. Chiofaro has accused Menino of playing politics with the BRA?s Greenway development guidelines, while Menino has cast Chiofaro as a developer who would destroy the Greenway, and Boston?s waterfront, for profit.
The threat to add 600 cars to the garage represents an escalation from the developer?s previous worst-case no-build scenario, which had been to simply leave the Harbor Garage as-is.
?Unlike Columbus Center, which put all that money into it and got nothing, and unlike Filene?s, which put all that money into it and got nothing out of it, we have a cash-flowing garage,? Chiofaro said last week. ?So this process we?ve gone through, while we?ve spent some money, we?ve had cash flow, and we?ve lived within our means. At the end of the day, if nobody wants to do anything, we?ll keep the garage, add a few cars.?
He paused, smiled, and added, ?And maybe put a slots parlor on top.?
Tom Palmer, a spokesman for neighboring Harbor Towers, said, ?We're glad to hear Mr. Chiofaro is thinking about alternatives to his unworkable development scheme, but we're sure he can do much better than that.?
Three additional levels of parking would fit within the new to-be-approved 200-foot waterfront zoning height, although it would likely be subject to city and state permitting, as well as the EPA?s downtown parking freeze. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority?s planned expansion of the Boston Common parking garage may already put the city past the number of spots allowed under the parking freeze.
