Paul Roiff has been pounding the table the loudest so far. But you can bet he won't be the last.
Even Roiff knows he's in a bad place: He's a developer playing the "not in my backyard" card as the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority entertains "air rights" proposals for the three-mile stretch of highway that cuts through the city like an ugly scar. And who can blame him? For a guy who began as a real estate agent renting $90-a-month apartments to students in Allston-Brighton life is very good.
Downstairs in the 102-year-old Pope Building at 223 Columbus Ave., his Mistral is one of the trendiest restaurants in town. It's a place where starters like the confit of duck go for $18; the Dover sole meuniere goes for $40, the roast rack of Colorado lamb for $39. Upstairs his $1.5 million condominium commands some of the South End's best views.
At least up to now. What has Roiff worried is what he thinks fellow Boston developer Arthur Winn and turnpike boss Jim Kerasiotes, two men he has never met, have in mind for his neighborhood.
While the proposed $475 million, 59-story Millennium Project at Massachusetts Avenue has gotten all the headlines, more behemoths are on the way. Next up: Winn's $350 million, two-tower complex that would straddle the turnpike between Beacon and Clarendon.
A Winn spokesman declined to comment. But here's what I'm told to expect:
- One tower, on so-called Parcel 16, would be 38 stories high. It would contain a 200-room hotel, about 100 condos, and an urban spa along the lines of the elite Canyon Ranch Health Resorts in Las Vegas, Tucson, and Lenox, Mass., where prices range from $3,000 and up for a week's stay. Can you imagine getting a herbal wrap or a hydromassage over the pike at rush hour?
- The other tower, on Parcel 17, would be 33 stories of market-rate housing, with 330 units in all. The Boston architects, CBT, have been told to find a way to include an affordable housing component.
Winn, a respected developer whose projects include the Bostonian hotel, has been talking with both the Turnpike Authority and the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Look for an announcement in 60 days.
Roiff, the developer, isn't waiting. As a mayoral appointee to an advisory committee overseeing the air rights development of the pike in the city, Roiff has been by far the noisiest member of the panel. More than a few have wondered whether his opposition doesn't have something to do with the fact that the Winn development would blot out his penthouse views on two sides.
The relationship between the Strategic Development Study Committee and the Turnpike Authority has been, to be kind, contentious. Committee members complain of the turnpike's "bullying approach"; some are not nearly so kind about Kerasiotes, the chairman.
"We haven't felt like they have dealt with us honestly and upfront," says Roiff. Of his fellow committee members, Roiff is hardly kinder: "Nobody says anything at the meetings. We look at slide shows. We are like 3-year-olds."
Roiff complains that Kerasiotes' goal is to maximize revenue for the turnpike to pay for the Big Dig, and the neighborhoods be damned. Kerasiotes says development revenues have nothing to do with the Big Dig, but he is interested in getting full value for the air rights as a way to reduce pressure on tolls.
"I'm treating this no differently than Paul Roiff would treat any piece of property he owns," says Kerasiotes.
The Millennium debate has far to go. The debate over the Winn proposal hasn't even begun. And there are certainly others to come. What we are seeing is a not-so-silent war over development, a war that will test whether Boston can finally heal the scar left by the turnpike.
This is a war that needs to be fought in the open, based on what is right for the city -- not on whose penthouse view is being blocked or which proposal will raise the last dollar for the turnpike.
