Actually, I believe they've given up and committed to Beacon Park for the layover yard. It's been pretty clear from those presentations that the MBTA sees that as a done deal.
Yes and no. The first parcels @ Widett they wanted were 1) the cold storage warehouse, and 2) the BTD tow lot. The cold storage building owners are pushing that gigantic-ass recycling center that the Boston Food Market (because of contamination risk) and the neighborhood (because of smell and
avian undesireables) are fighting with the fire of a thousand suns. That whole thing is likely going down in flames costing multiple parties a lot of lawyers' fees in the process, in which case the cold storage owners don't have a whole lot of options and the state is probably going to fetch them a better price than any other redev scenario. So strategically the state hanging back and letting the owners' arrogance implode on itself may ultimately land it in their hands at a cheaper price than their original plan to eminent domain it. While Beacon Park is proceeding, they will absolutely positively grab the warehouse if it becomes available and the owners stop being jackasses. Grab it in addition to BP, because that won't be the end of their long-term storage expansion needs. And if they grab it, the BTD tow lot completes a substantial-size expansion parcel and is a lot easier to hash out with the city for a relocation. As long as the tow lot stays within walking distance of a subway stop it doesn't matter where it goes, and there's plenty of crap parcels in Dorchester on the Red Line (like
here next to Andrew, or on Von Hillen St. across from the JFK entrance) that the lot could go without bothering anyone.
Boston Food Market is a more delicate situation. That facility at Widett houses the ex- meatpacking district evicted from Faneuil Hall in the early-70's. Menino barked at the T back in about 2001-02 about getting the hell out of Readville so he could redevelop it with whatever redevelopment thing he was on about at the time with his short attention span. Then booting the Food Market to the Stop & Shop warehouse at the outskirts of Readville (where they'd be terrorized by Dedham instead). To the point of telling the Globe "I can see those trains idling from my house!" (yes...he was Sarah Palin before Sarah Palin with that tantrum). The Food Market begged and pleaded the state not to do it because some of the vendors there are mom-and-pops where the increased trucking rates at a very inaccessible location like Readville would've plowed them under while raising wholesale prices for the city's restaurant industry. Menino and the BRA, of course, didn't lift a finger to facilitate...it was just an imperious and unilateral demand. So the state called his bluff and that was the end of that.
But if you're going to move the Food Market they have to be treated gently because they've been trampled upon by the city/state too many times already (including the stealth greenlight of the EIS for this controversial recycling center), they perform a pretty critical economic function for the local restaurant and catering industry, and many of the vendors that operate out of there (especially the ones serving local Chinatown eateries) are family-owned and entrepreneurial. I would think if they're going anywhere it would have to be a sweetheart deal to Marine Terminal next to all the seafood warehouses where they'll have all the same trucking access via the Haul Road and better freight rail access than they currently get at Widett (no rail siding into the facility...they unload from a refrigerator car on one of the T's track stubs by the side of the road at 2:00am).
It'd be nice to be able to downsize that too-large Beacon Park yard and fold it all in at world HQ at Widett/Southampton. That may happen yet if conditions change...they just can't proceed as if they're counting on it because that shitshow with the recycling center is purely a local dispute that could drag out for years the way all sides are enweaponed for battle. The state doesn't want any part of getting sucked into that vortex, and the BRA is being its old fuckin' useless self at making even the slightest attempt to mediate that situation. The part of the Pike realignment around the yard is just the flat highway. If they get a better deal and can downsize, that's an effortless design change to pull it in closer to the Worcester mainline and free up land. Remember...design's not final yet and because a reshaping there doesn't change the overall configuration of the new interchange other than shortening lengths of the street grid bridges, we're still a few years away from irreversible lockdown.
Full-speed ahead doesn't mean done-and-done if their #1 choices opens back up sooner. It means they're banking on the likely scenario, it's very very likely to happen, and if they hit point of non return and
then the preferred parcels come up they'll proceed with BP as-planned and bank the Widett land acquisitions for later expansion. They can always dangle Readville Yard 2 for redevelopment if they want to focus on BP + Widett for consolidated southside Commuter Rail HQ's; it's a high-value natural extension of Wolcott Sq. and way better than some of Menino's quixotic later day proposals at Readville for mixed-use on the much more isolated and inaccessible Yard 5 (the bigger empty one) and the ex-Stop & Shop warehouse. The only way they would back off BP, trade in the land, and write design work-to-date at BP off as a loss is if the cold storage warehouse and BTD lot came available much much sooner...because Widett next to the existing buildings and crew quarters would still be the cheaper option on actual construction. But call it 80/20 today on BP Yard proceeding to fruition. Point is...they've got multiple options. Now and afterwards.
All this does further underscore how damn hard it's going to be to make any Olympic use of Widett Circle. You've got too many mission-critical T and Amtrak buildings at ground level...none of it in much of a cut to deck compared to those two NYC cover-over projects (really...what's that gonna do to
these office buildings on Foundry St. right across from the Red Line yard to be staring across the street at a 2-1/2 story tall deck?). It's too expensive to go that much higher than the typical air rights over a depressed cut or just train height like SS bus station or the SS tower proposals. The Food Market is going to be justifiably defensive, and the odds are not high in the midst of Olympic fever that the city and BRA won't be insensitive clods with them once again. And those cold storage/recycling developers have already proven themselves uncooperative and nearly intolerable to deal with. It just ain't happening there. Olympic billions can't overcome the challenges of that site. It's best off being TransitTown hidden from view, and the last best place for the Food Market if they somebody doesn't feel like gift-wrapping them plush new gigs at the Seaport equal-or-better in every way to what they've currently got.
