Deal near to give Columbus Center plan a Boost
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | December 5, 2006
The troubled, long-delayed Columbus Center project over the Massachusetts Turnpike on the edge of Boston's Back Bay, with a price tag now in excess of $650 million, is close to getting a life-saving financial boost from two agencies this month, according to a senior state official.
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board member Tom Trimarco said the agency is considering letting WinnDevelopment defer payment of large portions of the $12 million in lease payments that the company owes in exchange for an increase in the amount of those payments. The Turnpike owns the air rights over the highway.
"I'm hoping we're going to reach a decision and present something to the board" of the Turnpike Authority at one of two meetings this month, said Trimarco, who is also the state secretary of administration and finance. "We're still talking with the developer."
WinnDevelopment is proposing to build a complex of towers with hotel, residential, office, and retail space and parks over four blocks of the below-grade Turnpike roadway.
The company was awarded development rights for Columbus Center from the Turnpike almost 10 years ago, and the project's cost has since more than doubled. One of WinnDevelopment's partners in the deal, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, said in August that Columbus Center was at risk of not getting built unless it received more favorable financial terms. It estimated a shortfall of $17 million to $25 million, and as construction prices have continued to push up since August that gap has grown.
"Time is of the essence," said Trimarco .
The Turnpike board is holding a special session tomorrow to deal with a different matter, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway downtown. But Trimarco said the board could take up the Columbus Center matter as well. The Turnpike board is also scheduled to meet later in December.
Trimarco said WinnDevelopment is negotiating separately with MassHousing, the state's affordable housing bank, for about $6 million in loans, at market interest rates, following a $15 million loan the agency had previously agreed to provide under more favorable terms.
A spokesman for WinnDevelopment, Alan Eisner, said the company had been told by state officials that any modifications to its lease "could not impose an additional burden on taxpayers. So we've been trying to deal with that reality while we figure out a way to go forward."
Opponents of Columbus Center have strongly objected to the use of any public help for the project.
If struck, the deals with the two government agencies could put WinnDevelopment on track to begin construction this spring, real estate executives who have been briefed on the negotiations said yesterday. They asked not to be identified because no final deal has been reached.
Increased payments to the Turnpike and MassHousing would come from a resale fee that would be imposed on buyers of the project's condominium residences. It is currently set at 1 percent of the price of a unit. Under the accord now being negotiated, that fee would be increased to 1.5 percent or more, Trimarco said.
Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at
tpalmer@globe.com.
? Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.