Constellation Center | 43 Thorndike St | East Cambridge

Constellation Center may get a tower. From CambridgeDay.com:

A long-promised performing arts venue called the Constellation Center might look very different when it opens, becoming a mixed-use complex with ground-floor arts space topped by a tower of housing or business space.

“They’ve started marketing the property for potential development,” said Robert P. Reardon, director of the city’s assessing department. “They’re actively out there looking at other uses for the property, including them being on the site, but with possibly a commercial entity to it.”
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With that began the Constellation Center’s tax exemption. But after two decades of exemption as a proposed nonprofit arts center, the status is changing, Reardon said. The site returns to the tax rolls as of Jan. 1; an assessment in spring will attach a price tag for the valuable Kendall Square property for the first time since the 1990s. “We haven’t put a number on it yet,” Reardon said.
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Thank god - please tax this guy out of holding this land hostage. They should assess him for back taxes for failing to deliver on his non-profit venture. It's absurd to use that shelter as a way of boosting value.
 
HAHAHAHAHAHA.

What is it with "CC" projects in the Boston metro that dooms them to eternal failure?
 
Galactic said:
Thank god - please tax this guy out of holding this land hostage. They should assess him for back taxes for failing to deliver on his non-profit venture. It's absurd to use that shelter as a way of boosting value.
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What an amazing play - he might actually get away with it too...
 
CSTH said:
What an amazing play - he might actually get away with it too...
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His donors should sue him for wasting all their money "researching acoustics" - aka drinking his way through Europe
 
Even if he returns the donations with interest he still has done spectacularly well on the appreciation - that's a hell of a float
 
Or maybe it's time the city took the land by eminent domain and prosecuted the owner for tax evasion. The guy lied about his intentions here, period.
 
BostonObserver said:
Prove it.
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The proof is in the pudding. He hasn't touched the site and has been able to enjoy the benefit of land appreciation while not paying any taxes. The site has been fenced off, (as opposed to at least an interim park) and the "art work" there is Grade A trolling. He should be given 2 options: pay the back taxes in full that would have been levied on the site for all the years he sat on it, or lose it to eminent domain.

If this developer is able to receive a windfall it encapsulates everything wrong with both the local development process, and even society as a whole. Too many people are allowed to get rich by cheating the system and receiving not so much as a slap on the wrist. This guy should be charged with fraud.
 
I agree with you but everything you have just described is, at best, circumstantial evidence. Unfortunately you would need a paper trail proving that he had no intention to build his concert center. That would be a very difficult task.
 
DZH22 said:
The proof is in the pudding. He hasn't touched the site and has been able to enjoy the benefit of land appreciation while not paying any taxes. The site has been fenced off, (as opposed to at least an interim park) and the "art work" there is Grade A trolling. He should be given 2 options: pay the back taxes in full that would have been levied on the site for all the years he sat on it, or lose it to eminent domain.

If this developer is able to receive a windfall it encapsulates everything wrong with both the local development process, and even society as a whole. Too many people are allowed to get rich by cheating the system and receiving not so much as a slap on the wrist. This guy should be charged with fraud.
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I'm pretty sure eminent domain would be his real windfall. ED is not legalized stealing. You still have to pay a fair market value for the property. I don't think the city has any interest or ability to pay market value for this site.

The guy has screwed us over, but there is no magic bullet to make it right. I think we are stuck waiting for him to deliver because all the alternatives are either too costly or don't result in a public amenity.
 
fattony said:
The guy has screwed us over, but there is no magic bullet to make it right.
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Cambridge hugely dropped the ball by not being proactive in forcing his hand a long, long time ago. Allowing this to go unchecked for years is gross incompetence. It's time to stop being blinded by the shiny halo of non-profits and the attitude they can do just about no wrong. They are certainly as capable of scuzzy practices as any for-profit.
 
If a charity owns the land and got a tax exemption then the charity will also the appreciation and the appreciation will have to be spent on a charitable purpose.

I don't see how it is possible that the land was charitable enough to get a deduction but somehow able to divert the appreciation to an individual. Is that truly the case?
 
Still haven’t proven that he drank his way all over Europe or that he lied about his intent.
 
BostonObserver said:
Still haven’t proven that he drank his way all over Europe or that he lied about his intent.
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You are correct. And this type of accuse-based-on-assumptions behavior is not how I would want to be treated in a free and fair society.

But, based squarely on what we know, it still doesn't make the situation ok. Let's change the rhetoric to be more concrete:
- There is a tattered banner blowing in the breeze mentioning that the Constellation Center is coming (it's attached to the chain link fence around the lot). It has been there for many years.
- Regardless of what's going on, however legitimate or illegitimate, the public has been bestowing a public benefit (tax break) to this individual. Might we at least ask for the professionalism and integrity of providing regular status updates?
- A temporary park was mentioned and then not acted upon
- We also know that the city is revoking the non-profit tax status as of Jan-1. This gives us reason to believe the grounds for such status do not appear to remain intact (at least in the city's view).

That may be all we know. But that doesn't mean we should be happy about it.
 
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BostonObserver said:
Still haven’t proven that he drank his way all over Europe or that he lied about his intent.
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By "he" do you mean... You? You're getting awfully defensive about this. Maybe you'd better delete that hard drive, and quick. We're on to you, KnicKrehm.
 
BostonObserver said:
Prove it.
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That's what the discovery phase of a lawsuit is for.

I don't know that he drank his way across Europe - was is clear is that his plans were nowhere near accurate, he spent years doing "research" and boasting about travelling the world on other peoples' dime, and Cambridge did nothing. Whatever he did do, this smells like fraud.
 
SOLD, finally.

Apparently, 1 acre in Kendall = $50.5 million. But it's a disgrace that property taxes weren't and capital gains taxes won't be paid on that.
 
Not even an acre. 36,000 sq ft.

I can't find a list of the Board of Directors for the Foundation, probably he, himself, and him.
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But fundraising lagged over the years as painstaking acoustical research went on and costs grew – from $85 million in 2007 to $100 million a few years ago to estimates of $300 million given to The Boston Globe in 2015
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http://www.cambridgeday.com/2018/08...-with-arts-to-be-component-of-any-future-use/

This guy is a loopy rip-off artist.
 
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