Winn Still Waiting For Columbus? Day
July 16, 2007
By Thomas Grillo,
Reporter
Developer of Controversial Project in South End Hopes $32.5 Million Bond Will Get Ball Rolling
More money. The developer of a controversial project to be built above the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston?s South End neighborhood is hoping a $32.5 million bond will get the long-delayed project under way.
The latest request in public support for Columbus Center comes as the project budget has reached $790 million, more than double the original cost when the mega-development was approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority in 2003.
But as the Boston Industrial Development Financing Authority (BIDFA) is set to approve the tax-free financing request, critics of the project are outraged by what they call Boston-based WinnDevelopment?s latest money grab.
?This is another form of public assistance and a complete waste of taxpayer money,? said state Rep. Martha M. Walz, whose Back Bay district abuts the project site. ?Roger Cassin said in public forums that he would not seek any public subsidy in exchange for the project?s height and density. But once the gavel was pounded for approval, he went on a wild spree for free money at taxpayer expense.?
Alan Eisner, a spokesman for Cassin, Winn?s managing partner, said public financing was never ruled out. ?I wasn?t there, but Mr. Cassin insists that he never said he would not seek public support and Roger is an honorable man.?
James G. Alexander, who served on the Citizens Advisory Committee, a panel appointed to advise Mayor Thomas M. Menino on the project, said Cassin never made an ?ironclad? promise not to seek taxpayer money.
?[Walz] is known to be thorough and precise and I do recall Roger said there did not seem to be a need to seek public financing,? Alexander said. ?But that was more than five years ago. Reasonable people could agree that when the project?s construction costs escalated, it seemed to be a good use of public money to turn the pollution-choked turnpike into a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.?
Still, there appears to be disagreement about how much public support Winn is seeking. Eisner said the total is $58.6 million: $20.6 million from MassHousing for the affordable units in the project, $15 million in federal New Market Tax Credits, a $10 million Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Jobs Program grant from Gov. Deval Patrick?s administration, $7 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a $4 million benefit from the BIDFA bond and a $2 million Community Development Action Grant Program grant.
Ned Flaherty, a project critic, said the public subsidies are closer to $500 million. In a report prepared for legislators and reporters, the Back Bay resident lists a $198 million discount for the air-rights parcel from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, $132 million in TIF financing and $58 million in federal tax waivers among the biggest items.
But a close examination of the data finds that Flaherty included loans as well as grants. A $4.3 million allocation request by Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, a Roxbury Democrat, defeated by the Legislature last year, also was included in the tally.
?Among the 14 different items we list, some are outright gifts while others are loans,? he said. ?My purpose is to show the amounts are big and to this point there has never been a government accounting of the cost of each of these favors.?
The BIDFA bond is available to Winn because earlier this year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development expanded Boston?s Empowerment Zone to include parcels above the turnpike. The city?s EZ is comprised of depressed areas of the city that need revitalization. Businesses that locate within the zone and create jobs can take advantage of tax credits and bonds. The money generated from Winn?s bond will be used to support construction of a 35-story luxury hotel and a 915-car parking garage that will offer more than 220 jobs.
?An Important Step?
Columbus Center is a 1.5 million-square-foot neighborhood to be built on four parcels including 7 acres above the turnpike bounded by Clarendon Street, Cahners Way and Columbus Avenue between the Back Bay and the South End.
While many Columbus Center foes attend hearings to oppose public funding for the project, reporters outnumbered residents at the sparsely attended BIDFA hearing last week. Francesco C. Tocci, deputy director for financial services in the Boston Redevelopment Authority?s Planning and Economic Development Office who chaired the brief session, said in more than a decade no one has ever attended a hearing at the agency.
?In 11 years, no one has ever showed up,? he said. ?Actually, one person did show once but it turned out he had come to the wrong meeting.?
BIDFA funds are below-market interest-rate bonds that are to be paid back in 20 to 30 years. The tax-exempt EZ bonds are issued to acquire land and build new facilities that promise job creation. The agency has dispensed more than $100 million in bonds including $50 million for the Fenway Community Health Center on Boylston Street and $43 million to support construction of the 175-room Hampton Inn & Suites in Roxbury. The borrower, not the city of Boston or the commonwealth of Massachusetts, is pledged to repay the bonds.
Thomas Miller, the BRA?s economic development director who has shepherded Columbus Center for years, said the BIDFA bond could be the final piece of the financial picture for the project.
?This is getting toward the end of the financing road,? he said. ?My position has been clear: I?m trying to get this project moving forward and this is an important step. Hopefully, we can get a shovel on the ground before summer?s end.?
Still, the project has had a number of stops and starts, in part, because construction costs have doubled and financing has been a challenge. The cost of the deck to be built over the turnpike has gone from $65 million to $145 million, according to Eisner.
While Winn hopes to commence construction commence shortly, Eisner could not rule out another application for public money.
?We have been putting our financing together with the city, state and private investors that will allow us to go into the ground this summer,? he said. ?We still don?t have all the money in place. But we are hopeful to begin because any more delays will increase the cost and we?ll end up with another gap.?
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