BCEC expansion | Seaport

stellarfun said:
There was a $10,000 sign put up by Dulles Airport outside of Washington.
But that was apparently the very expensive exception.

And one of the 'difficulties' is that you don't know how much a contractor is billing for a sign, in contrast to how much the sign actually cost. Like hospitals that charge $10 or $20 for a single aspirin; a price far in excess of what the hospital bought the aspirin for.
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You mean a 7 minute ambulance ride does NOT cost the provider $2,300 in gas and driver salary???
 
BostonUrbEx said:
By God, I think he's got it! THAT is why the Greenway lacks activity! NO ONE KNOWS WHERE IT IS. We need signs! Quick, write a letter to the Mayor and Peter Meade!
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LMAO!!!!!!!!!! Not only that we can let our children design the signs to cut costs.
 
Convention panel stacked
Critics: Billion-dollar fix is in
By Jerry Kronenberg
Thursday, May 26, 2011 - Updated 3 hours ago

A blue-ribbon committee studying whether a proposed $2 billion Boston Convention & Exhibition Center expansion should go forward is packed with people representing hotels, construction unions and other entities that would benefit from the project, a Herald review has found.

The Convention Partnership ? a 27-person committee appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and legislative leaders ? is set to issue recommendations about the expansion to lawmakers next month. But the Herald found that a majority of members work for labor groups or tourism-related businesses or are lawmakers whose districts include the convention center?s South Boston home.

?It?s bad civics. It?s bad for everyone,? said Charles Chieppio, an ex-Massachusetts Convention Center Authority board member who opposes the expansion.

The MCCA wants to add a 1,000-room hotel, 400,000 square feet of new exhibition space and other upgrades to the 7-year-old convention center.

Tentative plans call for financing the expansion with some $200 million of government subsidies, as well as possible higher taxes on hotel rooms, car rentals and other tourism-related services.

Patrick and other pols created the Convention Partnership in 2009 to ?steward the public study of (the) initiative,? according to the group?s Web site. But critics say the committee?s composition makes it virtually certain the group will endorse the expansion. Members include:

Massachusetts Lodging Association President Paul Sacco and the heads of the Sheraton Hotel Boston, Marriott Copley Place and Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center.
Two execs from the pro-tourism Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
MCCA chief James Rooney and ex-MCCA board member Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
James Coyle of the Boston Building Trades Council, which represents unionized construction workers.
?It?s loaded with people who were either involved with the creation of the BCEC, on the MCCA board or have a tremendous interest in the lodging industry,? said Heywood Sanders, a convention-industry expert who opposes the expansion.

But panel member and Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau chief Pat Moscaritolo said he?s ?comfortable? with the group?s objectivity, saying opponents will have chances later to lobby against the project.

?Our report (will be) the beginning of the debate, not the end of it,? he said.

jkronenberg@bostonherald.com

http://bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1340632
 
Is this the plan to expand away from the waterfront towards residential Southie? Or is this part of a plan to replace planned residential along Summer/Congress with more hotels?
 
As I understand, the plan sprawls over the Haul Road into Fort Point, onto parcels currently owned by USPS, a number of which were formerly envisioned for residential development under the 100 Acre Plan. Further expansion may include the other side of D Street, but I haven't heard that. Also, I don't think any elements of the expansion cross Summer Street.

Details are sketchy mainly because the BCEC (aka T5Boston) public process amounts to carefully handpicking a few residents from each neighborhood and broadcasting that the communities are therefore in the loop -- as if the residents run home after each meeting and send updates to anyone. No such communication channels exist within the neighborhoods -- you'd be hardpressed to find a Lower End Southie or Fort Point resident who knows anything about what the plan looks like. That's outstanding if you're worried about NIMBYism but not so great if you anticipated the growth of a mixed-use neighborhood with substantial residential instead of a taxpayer-assisted push toward destination commercial.
 
So if this ends up going through. The Massachusetts taxpayers in 1 year will be on the hook for 319 Million dollars on 3 development projects.

Liberty Mutal
Fan Pier
BCEC


Did I miss anymore? I know I will never see a penny of those taxes benefiting me.
 
I checked in with a friend for an update. As far as she's heard, the BCEC was unable to secure air rights over the SB Bypass Road, limiting engagement with the Fort Point parcels. According to her, the expansion has refocused on areas on the east side of D Street toward the Reserve Channel.
 
That's good news actually. Nonetheless hopefully air rights over the bypass can be worked out fo another (residential?) use...
 
Where east of D? Between D and E? If they go beyond E, UPS has a 99 year lease (probably down to 90 or so now?) on half that land along the channel. (Which from what I hear, pissed off Menino indefinitely. And ever since, UPS trucks have been targeted much more by the tow trucks.)
 
I have no idea what parcels. The "public" process is a joke. No one I speak to regularly has any idea what the plans look like.

As for the expansion on the other side of D Street, I can only imagine that it spreads between D & E, not sure about moving towards the Reserve Channel.

As for the UPS lease, I don't know what that is all about. I do know that for much of the past decade the US Postal Service was very interested in moving the main facility to those Pappas parcels along the Reserve Channel to free up the valuable Dot Ave and Fort Point parcels for commercial development.
 
Convention panel OKs expansion


http://www.boston.com/Boston/busine...s-expansion/wvbygVrRZ5OHCRYSVuEOMI/index.html

A state panel today recommended a $2 billion expansion of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center that would dramatically increase its meeting space, and add a headquarters hotel next door.

The panel’s sign off is the first step toward official approval of the expansion, which still needs backing from the City of Boston, the state Legislature and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.

The endorsed project includes an addition that would house a second exhibit hall, new meeting rooms and multi-purpose space, and an adjacent hotel with up to 1,200 rooms. The panel also recommended that the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority spend $4 million to determine optimal locations for additional parking and other facilities required to support the project. That recommendation will next be taken up by the authority’s board of directors.

Nearly all 27 members of the panel, named the Convention Partnership, were strongly in favor of the expansion, arguing a larger convention center would produce substantial benefits for taxpayers.

“Boston has so much more potential as a convention and meeting city,” said James Rooney, co-chair of the panel and executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. “The project speaks to Boston’s role in a 21st-century knowledge-based economy. The ability to hold these major assemblies in key industries is a big part of that broader picture.”

The partnership is made up of local officials and business people appointed by city and state leaders.

Three panelists declined to support the expansion, saying they were not convinced the project is the best use of the state’s economic development money.

“I’m yet to be persuaded that the benefits of this project merit the large public expenditures that would be required,” said panelist Michael Widmer, head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. The other two objectors are State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Sam Tyler, head of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

The panel has said construction of the hotel alone could require up to $200 million in public subsidies as well as additional tax increases to pay for the new exhibit hall and meeting rooms.

The partnership did not recommend specific funding sources, and instead put forward a menu of options: including an increase in the statewide hotel tax, borrowing against future tax revenues from the expansion, or increasing taxes on taxis, rental cars and other tourist services around the Boston area.

The panel’s backing comes despite critics’ concerns that a larger facility will not produce the promised economic benefits, at a time when the nation’s convention business is struggling and 21 other cities are also expanding their facilities to fight for a share of the market.

In Boston, visitors to the John B. Hynes Memorial Convention Center and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center fell to 645,000 last year, down 26 percent from 870,000 in 2008.

But managers of the convention center authority are predicting a strong recovery in coming years that they say will justify the costs of expansion. The authority released a report last week asserting that the larger center could pump $222 million a year into the local economy, attract up to 26 new events per year, and create or support 7,300 construction jobs.

The debate now shifts to City Hall and the State House, where the Patrick and Menino administrations must work with lawmakers to decide whether to move forward with the expansion.
 
^^^
The taxpayers are going to get taken to the CLEANERS on this one.
God Help us.

I sit in traffic everyday, at least spend our tax money on making a better infrastructure for the state or expanasion for another highway for driving. This is fucking bullshit.
 
TheRifleman said:
^^^
The taxpayers are going to get taken to the CLEANERS on this one.
God Help us.

I sit in traffic everyday, at least spend our tax money on making a better infrastructure for the state or expanasion for another highway for driving. This is fucking bullshit.
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Or you could just go join archSuburbs and leave us alone. Another highway? Seriously?
 
new sign?
040-13.jpg
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Justin7 said:
Or you could just go join archSuburbs and leave us alone. Another highway? Seriously?
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Maybe not another highway, but there are still alot or bridges in Boston that need repair. This hack project is just another symbol of corruption in this city.
 
Is that grid-ish thing -- a sign post or art?
 
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