Rifleman, as I understand the chronology, and this is purely from memory, --and mine is not infallible:
a.) Chiofaro announced interest in buying the garage before it was formally put up for sale. He thought it the best site in Boston.
b.) When the garage owner puts the building up for sale, Chiofaro buys it. There were several interested parties, but Chiofaro wins. His winning bid may have been aided by his commitment to retain the owner of the garage as the manager of the facility after Chiofaro owns it.
c.) About the time he buys the garage, he has a meeting with the BRA in which he outlines, conceptually, the building he would like to construct. He talks about a building 400+ feet tall. The BRA asks him to come back with a more detailed proposal. The BRA does not bless the 400+ foot height, but neither do they tell him that 400+' is out of the question.
d.) About six months after the garage sale, Chiofaro obtains a five year note for more than half the purchase price. The note seems to require that Chiofaro pay only interest, with a big balloon payment of the principal at the end (about two years from now).
e.) Chiofaro's take on the BRA meeting seems to be that the BRA would probably be okay with a 400' height, a height which he then adopts as more of a 400' floor, than a cap of how tall he can build.
f.) Chiofaro never does return to the BRA with a more detailed concept. Instead, with great fanfare, he subsequently unveils the Arch, which is nearly twice as tall as the building he discussed with the BRA early on. Apparently, Chiofaro, prior to the announcement, does not inform the BRA, nor cue the mayor. (Part of the 'process' in Boston is that the mayor likes to be cued on big, major projects beforehand, and his endorsement, or at the very least, his neutrality, facilitates the project getting approved. (The 'process' is what it is, and unless one is in a politically or economically strong position vis-a-vis the mayor, one does what one has to do.))
g.) However, Chiofaro and/or his architect fail to perform due diligence with the FAA and Massport beforehand, and these entities soon after the unveiling, chop the top off the Arch as a hazard to air traffic. In effect, the Arch becomes a wasted iteration, a teaser that throws away money on a design that would not get approved, -- and without Menino having to lift a finger in opposition.
h.) Because Chiofaro has used the Arch iteration in filing the PNF with the state, and with the BRA, the state responds critically, saying that the Arch cannot be approved as proposed. Concurrently, the city, in its scoping document, sets out the parameters of various studies, analyses, etc., that Chiofaro must undertake and submit before the city can formally review the project. The analyses are to include several alternatives of buildings that would conform to current codes, plans, and regulations.
i.) Now back at the drawing board, Chiofaro prepares another iteration, shortening the height of the Arch, abandoning the open-to-the-sea atrium for a glass pavilion fronting the north facade. He proposes that his building form the south edge of an active public square leading to the entrance of the Aquarium. In a reprise of what he did with the Arch concept, he chooses not to discuss his public square with either the Aquarium or the owners of the building on the north edge before unveiling it.
And he 'solves' the Harbor Towers parking problem by proposing to construct a very large floating garage that the residents can use while he constructs his building(s).
j.) Alas. Not having gained much traction with the second iteration, he most recently unveils a third concept, the 'stub', a residential building to be constructed atop the garage, and which presumably, in large measure, is a conforming building to the current code, plan, overlay, regulations, etc etc.
And that's where we now are.
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Chiofaro has conceded he doesn't have any financing for his project lined up, and he can't get any financing until he shows demonstrable progress in getting the city's okay to construct whatever building secures that city and state approval.
But time is a-fleeting on the balloon payment to the Hartford investors. My guess is that he can't refinance the note unless he has an okay from the city for a building that makes economic sense, in terms of what he paid for the garage. Then the note stands a good chance of getting re-financed; as a property with approvals and permits for something larger and greater becomes much more valuable.
And if in 2013, he and the city are no closer than where they are currently, there is no-refinancing of the note, and the Hartford investors will likely take ownership of the property. My very speculative guess is Prudential will wipe out his remaining equity stake in IP to cover their share of the garage financing. (Prudential already all but took the shirt off his back with regard to IP when they bailed him out with his dispute with Tishman Speyer.)
IMO, Chiofaro currently lacks the financial resources to undertake the studies or analyses required by the state and the BRA, or even to hire lawyers or a real estate management company to begin negotiations with the Harbor Towers condo owners about satisfying their existing and future property interest in the garage. (All one need do is read through the multi-volume appendices that he prepared for IP to get a sense of what he had to do 25 years ago, and it hasn't gotten any easier.) That would explain why there seems to be little or no progress on either front.
So we are being treated to this rather strange Kabuki theater on the Greenway, which I suspect is going to end badly for Chiofaro. He doesn't quite fit the tragic hero in the Greek sense, given he is not that noble, and his denouement is partly of his own doing.
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KentXie, the only high-end apartments that I have ever been in that looked like absolute 'sh*t' on the outside were in Moscow, where the authorities purposefully required Westerners to live in Stalinist-era architecture that was as drab, and as dull as possible. In effect, the Communist bureaucrats created squares of Potemkin facades so the good citizens of Moscow would never realize that Westerners were living in rather grand style behind the brick and plaster.
