Columbus Center: RIP | Back Bay

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Re: Columbus Center

I can't wait to see how Beal/Related alter this project to make it profitable. We are lucky in this city to have developers like the Beal Companies who try so hard to get development done right - decade after decade.

Of course, nothing will be built at Columbus Center for 1-2 years. That's how it works. But all is well with Beal/Related - they are in a strong position with their ownership/management of Columbus Center Phase I (the Clarendon) and with their deep pockets. They'll sit tight and wait out the current storm.

Let's all just calm down. I would imagine the Hard Rock Cafe building gets bulldozed and more of this project shifts from over the highway to next to the highway. I wonder what will happen to those one-story, rag-tag brick garages that currently have a pizza shop and some bars in them.

Ned Cheney, calling a Longwood medical research facility a "bio-terror lab" is certainly silly, but it's also shameful and sad. You should have gotten a job with the Bush administration given your penchant for truth-mangling and word-smithing.
 
Re: Columbus Center

Ned Flaherty said:
that they secretly scarfed up land in Allston-Brighton to hide the fact they were amassing it for Harvard University,
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I tired of hearing this stupid argument. The key here is the word Harvard and nothing else. The city did the exact same thing when they bought the land to build the new wing of the Copley Sq Library. Why would Harvard announce their intentions only to have property values jacked up, nobody is that stupid, enough with this stupid argument.

pelhamhall said:
I wonder what will happen to those one-story, rag-tag brick garages that currently have a pizza shop and some bars in them.
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I believe those are old stables and it would be a shame to loss them because they add interest to the streetscape and they will provide a nice break between the high-rises.
 
Re: Columbus Center

The switch of ownership occurred without any notice to the public, which drew ire from critics, such as Ned Flaherty, an urban planning activist and co-founder of the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods.
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I know this is plain mean but uh yeah that made my holidays feel much better.
 
Re: Columbus Center

I wouldn't take anything in the south end news too seriously. I've been reading it for about 25+ years and the current ownership is the worst I've seen.
 
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Re: Columbus Center

Whoa. Why the f- did my name come up in that article???
 
Re: Columbus Center

pelhamhall said:
. . . calling a Longwood medical research facility a "bio-terror lab" is certainly silly. . .
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No._ Boston?s development approval process allows any building to get proposed merely as a ?medical research facility? and then, once built, to switch to bio-terror warfare engineering, with no zoning change, no public notice, and no public recourse._ So, with no distinction between non-bio-terror and bio-terror, and with bio-terror offering the higher profit, the bio-terror label isn?t incorrect at all, because that, in effect, is what is getting approved._ The lobbyists advocating for approval don?t even whisper the term, but it?s included automatically in the approval that they?re seeking.
 
Re: Columbus Center

JohnAKeith said:
Whoa. Why the f- did my name come up in that article???
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Your name was mentioned in the Columbus Center year-in-review article (?Columbus Center left in limbo, South End News, 31 December 2008) because the reporter, Managing Editor, and Editor-in-Chief chose to quote from your 940-word column, co-written with Matt Byrne, on 14 August, in which you also wrote, ?I, for one, have given up on the project.?

Few community newspapers last 30 years as the South End News has, but readers and advertisers continue their support because the newspaper is a valued part of the community, and adheres to the standards of the New England Press Association and South End Business Alliance, where it has long-standing memberships.

Kudos to you for abandoning the pen name ?Jimbo Jones? and writing under the same name you use in your real estate brokerage._ If all members were that honest, then the forum could begin to earn respectability as a public place, for serious debate, of worthy topics, put forth by actual people, who don?t fear being associated with their own ideas.

In the meantime, most members continue hiding anonymously behind cartoon names, and safely engaging in juvenile name-calling, blind cheer-leading, and uninformed hollering._ Such anonymous sand-boxing doesn?t happen in professional or academic fora that are managed by professional associations or institutions of higher learning, where contributors identify themselves, document their work, and take responsibility for their words.

Here?s hoping your good example encourages others to do the same.
 
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Re: Columbus Center

^^LOL, you want to know my real name? It's 宋小红/Song Xiaohong and I have soooooo much to hide being a student who is just interested in architecture and construction as a hobby. Can you give an example of a forum that has earned respectability "as a public place, for serious debate, of worthy topics, put forth by actual people, who don’t fear being associated with their own ideas"? Because a forum is a place where ideas are discussed without fear of retaliation outside the forum, and anonymity helps protect that ideal. It seems like you are shocked, SHOCKED!!! about the Internet conventions of total free speech and the separation of online life and real life. The censorship advocated by you saying that we should only discuss "worthy topics, put forth by actual people" is staggering. Those criteria are subjective, and it is ridiculous that you would suggest that when this forum has some of the least off-topic threads of any forum I've ever visited. Also, do you have any evidence to support "most members continue hiding anonymously behind cartoon names, and safely engaging in juvenile name-calling, blind cheer-leading, and uninformed hollering?" Since it seems the only difference is that you give your real name out, while engaging in all of the activities that you are accusing others of. This isn't a professional or academic "fora", but a site where people interested in Boston architecture and development go to, and where responsibility for one's words is exercised. In fact, this forum is one of the most mature I have went on to, if you visit other forums Ned, this one will compare highly. You should try and contributing serious debate on other threads with your real name and spreading your worthy ideas; if you have more visibility in this forum, maybe others will follow your lead!
 
Re: Columbus Center

Ned, I just want to clarify one thing: since October 2008, I do not run a real estate brokerage under my name. I am a licensed real estate agent under the brokerage of Ford Realty.

I am not actively seeking new clients and am working on getting rid of my last two listings. I will continue to hold onto my real estate license only because it is paid through the next two years. I am not a "real estate agent" or "real estate broker" therefore, but someone with a real estate license. You might not see the distinction, but I think there is one.

Any and all opinions I give here and elsewhere (including on the Boston Herald's "Getting real" real estate blog) are from my point of view as a resident of Boston's South End neighborhood. You've suggested (or, should I say, accused) that I have ulterior motives when I say I am for or against development projects. This has never been true, but now there's no way anyone can accuse me of such.

I do not base my opinions on personal or financial gain or loss.

Also, I don't need to "hide" behind pen names to act like a juvenile. I am proud to do it anyway I can. LOL!
 
Re: Columbus Center

A friend of mine introduced me to a wonderful phrase: "Shouting at the river" as in you are shouting at the river trying to convince it to change its course.

This thread is full of people shouting at the river.
 
Re: Columbus Center

Just for the sheer fun of responding...

The "bio-terror lab" and "non-bio-terror" lab argument is like saying when the BRA approves a site for manufacturing, they are de facto declaring it a dildo and vibrating nipple-clamp factory, because there is no verbiage specifying the difference between that and a "non-dildo and vibrating nipple-clamp factory"

Further examination of the rules and laws would show that bio labs that could possible pose a risk to the public do in fact need to be zoned differently.

What BU went through at their lab site was an altogether different process and altogether different zoning than what Beal is asking for on this lab site.

So the the back-and-forth is fun, and sometimes you can be "right" and still not make much sense.
 
Re: Columbus Center

Ned Flaherty said:
Kudos to you for abandoning the pen name ?Jimbo Jones? and writing under the same name you use in your real estate brokerage._ If all members were that honest, then the forum could begin to earn respectability as a public place, for serious debate, of worthy topics, put forth by actual people, who don?t fear being associated with their own ideas.

In the meantime, most members continue hiding anonymously behind cartoon names, and safely engaging in juvenile name-calling, blind cheer-leading, and uninformed hollering._ Such anonymous sand-boxing doesn?t happen in professional or academic fora that are managed by professional associations or institutions of higher learning, where contributors identify themselves, document their work, and take responsibility for their words.

Here?s hoping your good example encourages others to do the same.
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You really are an ass.
 
Re: Columbus Center

Ned Flaherty said:
No._ Boston?s development approval process allows any building to get proposed merely as a ?medical research facility? and then, once built, to switch to bio-terror warfare engineering, with no zoning change, no public notice, and no public recourse._ So, with no distinction between non-bio-terror and bio-terror, and with bio-terror offering the higher profit, the bio-terror label isn?t incorrect at all, because that, in effect, is what is getting approved._ The lobbyists advocating for approval don?t even whisper the term, but it?s included automatically in the approval that they?re seeking.
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Someone is paranoid. Hi Ned, my name is Kent Xie, a undergrad student at Northeastern University studying architect and a Ned Flaherty critic. Seriously, if you believe that the Longwood Medical area is used to develop bio-terror warfare then you are definitely one of those craze NIMBYs. The Longwood Medical facility is used to enhance and improve medicine, not to create bio weapon used to kill people off. Can it be that you also believe that the government is hiding an alien from the Roswell incident which will be used as a weapon?

Even though Ned updates the forum, all his crap is worth hardly anything. We all know the newspaper is biased. Ned writes in a manner as though he knows everything, including things that are not there. He is condescending and indirectly belittle people. He is just as bad as our old forumer dudeursisterishot who writes to draw ire. Maybe it's time he should be banned as well.
 
Re: Columbus Center

Kudos to you for abandoning the pen name ?Jimbo Jones? and writing under the same name you use in your real estate brokerage._ If all members were that honest, then the forum could begin to earn respectability as a public place, for serious debate, of worthy topics, put forth by actual people, who don?t fear being associated with their own ideas.

In the meantime, most members continue hiding anonymously behind cartoon names, and safely engaging in juvenile name-calling, blind cheer-leading, and uninformed hollering._ Such anonymous sand-boxing doesn?t happen in professional or academic fora that are managed by professional associations or institutions of higher learning, where contributors identify themselves, document their work, and take responsibility for their words.

Here?s hoping your good example encourages others to do the same.
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Ned, welcome to the internet and the 21st century. Using handles in online fora is extraordinarily common, believe it or not.

I know you don't consider this a "serious" medium for discussion, but hear me out - no one has much reason to fear being associated with whatever ideas are prevalent here. We're not armed revolutionaries forced to hide behind pen names. Personally, I use a handle so that, when someone googles my name, they don't first discover that I spend 95% of my free time here - not because I fear some kind of dire consequence for airing my beliefs about, of all things, architecture.

What's more, this is not a forum for public officials nor is it some public civic association. It's a private entity that reserves the right to censor and ban members. The need for transparency is relatively little. When forum members have acted on the public stage - in public meetings, protests, or in the press - they have all provided full disclosure as to who they are as well as what they stand for.
 
Re: Columbus Center

This thread has a grotesque fascination similar to that of "Vince" in the Shamwow commercial.
 
Re: Columbus Center

$60m for Columbus Center

By Thomas Grillo
Boston Herald

Columbus Center developers hope to jumpstart the controversial project with a new public financing package worth up to $60 million.

Sources said the Beal Co., representatives for the California Urban Investment Partners and Boston-based Winn Development, the joint venture for the stalled project, are asking the Menino administration to approve District Improvement Financing.

While such financing is raised through bond sales and could rescue the project, critics insist it shortchanges taxpayers by giving most of the real estate taxes generated by the project to investors.

This is the latest attempt to salvage the $850 million development, which has been on hold for nearly a year due to funding woes. It has faced fierce opposition from State Reps. Byron Rushing, Martha M. Walz and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.

?If Columbus Center gets public financing, the money will go into a bottomless pit,? said Rushing.

Aaron Michlewitz, DiMasi?s spokesman, said, ?Tax incentives should not go into a project in such disarray.?

Peter Spellios, Beal?s attorney, declined to say whether his firm is seeking a tax break. ?Like every other development in this country, we are forced to examine all possible financing options,? he said.

Columbus Center, a 1.3-million-square-foot mixed-use project, was approved in 2003 and would include housing, a hotel, retail and parks. At one time, the project had $50 million in public financing, but most of it has expired as costs escalated and deadlines were missed.

Rushing said the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, owner of the air rights where Columbus Center would be built, should seek a new developer.

But Alan LeBovidge, the T?s executive director, said he is giving Beal more time to devise a solution. ?If we start the process all over again, it?s back to square one,? he said.
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Re: Columbus Center

[size=+2]Columbus Center still uncertain[/size]
By Casey Ross ? Globe Staff ? January 9, 2009

Consultants examining the Columbus Center condominium, hotel, and retail project in Boston say they need another two to three months to determine whether the proposed project is economically viable.

The Beal and Related Cos. yesterday said they need the additional time to develop a plan for moving forward with the $800 million development over the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston.

The consultants initially said they would produce recommendations in October, but they have repeatedly pushed back the deadline. ?Discussions with potential financial sources are much more challenging, and have caused a delay in our ability to make final recommendations,? their statement said.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/01/09/columbus_center_still_uncertain/
 
Re: Columbus Center

Site all cleaned up:

img4553hi5.jpg
 
Re: Columbus Center

Ned Flaherty said:
No._ Boston?s development approval process allows any building to get proposed merely as a ?medical research facility? and then, once built, to switch to bio-terror warfare engineering, with no zoning change, no public notice, and no public recourse.
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Wow. Stick with UFP's. At least there you could appear to have a valid opinion since nobody knows what the hell those are. But, do some of that research you are always promoting before you start going off about Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories. There is no such thing, at least legally in this country, as a bio-terror engineering laboratory. In fact, even at labs which have a high level BSL-3 or BSL-4 suite in it, have very little use for them, and typically not in the bio-terror dept. Government labs do have more of an abundance of the type of research you are sort of referring to.

Is there a need for this. I'd like to think so, or I might have a hard time sleeping at night if I thought the labs I was designing were being used to create new and better chemical and biological warfare.

You should also do some reading up on the safety measures which go into the design of these types of labs before you start the "think of the children" angle....

Anyways, why is this in the Columbus Center thread?
 
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