Fan Pier Developments | Seaport

Sicilian said:
Cambridge isn't even the major issue.

By whoring out the Seaport with a continual stream of tax breaks and taxpayer-financed boondoggles, neighborhoods that might benefit from City Hall's fixation on corporate welfare, such as Newmarket and Andrews Square, aren't even a consideration.
Click to expand...

Don't worry the city is making it up on the back end by charging Nonprofits, Hospitals, BID, Greenway, and Northend Taxes.

If this isn't a wake up call to how stupid the voters of Boston have become then Menino will end up being a Dictator in the next election. At this point what is stopping him?
 
Anyone have any more info on the ?Boston Fusion? project. Is it just a design concept at this point? Or has there been developer interest? Any word from City Hall or Mumbles? I don?t know if I like it or not but it would be a pretty drastic (bold?) move if this got built. I?m not getting my hopes up.

It also seems laden with design/management issues considering the winters we have.
 
I did some research into it - it seems like an unsolicited proposal from a design firm with zero interest in truly pursuing it and lots of interest in promoting a certain building technology.
 
Boston Fusion was conceptual, on Seaport Square and Barking Crab parcels.

A good hint "Boston Fusion" isn't moving forward is the actual "Innovation Lab" project recently approved for the site in Phase One Seaport Square, posted on the Seaport Square thread two weeks ago.

Not that reality matters, the Seaport Square thread is now the stadium thread.
 
Something I am still wondering about is what is planned for the Innovation Lab parcel. Is it just the Innovation Lab building or will it include any other building?

I sent an email to Jay Rourke at the BRA asking him but have not heard back yet.

Part of the email:

I believe that John Hynes originally proposed a residential building on this parcel with as many as 82 units (or was it more?). Subsequently, he reduced this to 34 units and was given BRA approval.

I read this past week that the plan now is to put the Innovation Center on this parcel, a building that will be leased to the City for ten years at $1 per year in rent. The Innovation Center is 12,000 square feet but the residential building as proposed was almost 82,000 square feet. Will the Innovation Center replace the residential building or be built as part of it?
 
In addition to the condo that had been approved in 2008 for Seaport Square Parcel A, Phase One...

You might inquire with Jay Rourke what happened to the "Visitor Center" that was presented by Hynes for development on Seaport Square Parcel A, Phase One in January 2010.

That also disappeared or was subsumed into the current plan for the "Innovation Lab"
recently announced for Parcel A.
 
The BRA and the mayor rebranding this an 'innovation district' is all well and good, but without any real investment and infrastructure upgrade from the city, it is a frankly just another pathetic misdirection. More studies, more press releases, and no actual progress. As usual, we have marketing spin to paper over city hall's lack of any real ideas or serious intent.

If you are unaware of it, for an example of a bold move from a city that operates with real conviction, look at the 22@ district in Barcelona.
http://www.22barcelona.com/

Not without its problems of gentrification and speculative development running roughshod over local residents and urban character, but a ?180m infrastructure investment has led to some 30 new blocks being built out...
in the last 10 years.

In the same period in Boston from the adoption of the seaport master plan we have 1 building at Fan Pier. A shite state of affairs to be sure.

Excerpted from the 22@ website...
"State of execution: December 2009
Since the beginning of the project the refurbishment of 69% has been started, under 110 plans for urban amelioration. Said projects will result in obtaining over 2,824,709 m2 of over ground GFS for new production facilities, social housing, facilities and technical services.
The real estate sector has decisively supported the Project: 74 of the 110 plans approved are promoted by the private sector, of which planning permission has been granted to build 582,880 m2 of over ground GFS for production activities.
The 22@Barcelona project has likewise been warmly received by the business community: 1,502 firms have already established in the 22@Barcelona district or are in the process of building their corporate HQs there. More than 69% of the companies that have moved to the 22@Barcelona district since 2001 belong to one of the five strategic 22@Barcelona sectors: Media, ITC, Medical Technologies, Energy or Design. As a result, the number of people working in Poblenou has risen significantly. There are currently 44,600 new workers, more than half of which are university graduates, and that number is predicted to reach 150,000."
 
^el raval

I enjoyed reading your info about Barcelona, of which I was unaware.

The oddest thing about the BRA press releases is that they are nearly always accompanied by approvals, each of which go through the formal approval process including BRA Board and Zoning Board of Appeals. Then, 99.9% of the projects never get built.

In a number of instances, the parcels get flipped or are put up for sale with the approval adding to the value of the land.

In the second round, the BRA issues a slew of new press releases, highlighting the Notice of Project Changes filed by developers for projects that don't conform to the original approval (such as we see on Parcel A and along Summer Street). That process goes through the formal approvals at the BRA Board and Zoning Commission and that project never gets built either.

There are a number of such projects that have been sitting after two rounds of approvals.

If one were to look at the scope of BRA approvals through the BRA Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, they would think the entire Seaport were under construction. And apparently the Boston Globe editorial board is convinced that BRA press releases are all they need to be concerned about, with a motto, "Never look back."
 
Unless you have the politicans bought and paid for. It has really become a political & Economical risk to build in Boston. Why take the chance when you can sell the project and lock in 20 or 30% profit.

Building in Boston is too complex these days unless you have everyone on the payroll.
 
Cambridge prepares counter-bid to keep Vertex away from Hub
?Ready to go toe-to-toe?
By Jerry Kronenberg
Monday, February 14, 2011 - Updated 6 hours ago


Call it ?Revenge of the Nerds: The Sequel.?

Cambridge is preparing to fight to keep Vertex Pharmaceuticals and other tech firms from moving to Boston?s new ?Innovation District? ? and thinks the home of Harvard and MIT is a better place to do business anyway.

?If (Boston) is going to do what they?re going to do (to attract Cambridge firms), Cambridge is ready to go toe-to-toe,? Cambridge City Councilor Leland Cheung told the Herald.

Hub Mayor Thomas M. Menino kicked off a fight with Cambridge officials recently by luring Vertex from Kendall Square to the Innovation District, a massive development of businesses, restaurants and housing planned for South Boston?s waterfront.

Vertex tentatively agreed to move its 1,200-person headquarters to lower-cost South Boston in 2013 in exchange for $72 million in state and local incentives.

However, Cambridge is reportedly preparing a counteroffer that would include the first financing incentives the city has offered a private firm in some 20 years.

Tim Rowe of Cambridge?s Kendall Square Association believes local officials should offer such aid when appropriate, but doesn?t believe his district should compete on dollars-and-cents issues alone.

?I don?t think Cambridge (needs to attract) companies looking for a cheap place to get a lot of space,? said Rowe, whose group represents 115 Kendall Square firms. ?What Cambridge (must) do is remain the single most attractive place in the world to build an innovation company.?

Rowe believes that instead of offering tax breaks or lower rents, Kendall Square should tout itself as the home of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Draper Labs and other research powerhouses.

Kairos Shen, Boston?s chief city planner, sees the Innovation District as complementing Kendall Square rather than rivaling it.

?The notion behind the Innovation District is not to recreate Kendall Square, (but) to create something that has some of Kendall Square?s characteristics and other things Kendall Square doesn?t have,? he said.

For instance, Shen said the Innovation District has more undeveloped land than Kendall Square, offering companies that currently just do R&D in Cambridge the space to manufacture products locally as well.

Officials hope to build on such strengths by offering tax incentives, low rents in city-owned Marine Industrial Park and zoning rules that promote small offices and affordable housing.

The ultimate goal is to create a district of hip restaurants, cutting-edge firms and cool housing to attract entrepreneurs and young, tech-savvy workers.

?The challenge for us is to build an innovative economy and jobs for the future,? Shen said.

Southie waterfront - Feb. 14, 2011:

http://www.bostonherald.com/busines...eep_vertex_away_from_hub/srvc=home&position=4
 
This is all such a waste of money. Imagine the productive uses of this money if Boston had a metropolitan government. Instead we have cities racing to the bottom over an inevitable regional benefit because each might be entitled to some now much more marginal ROI via tax. Sad.
 
czsz said:
This is all such a waste of money. Imagine the productive uses of this money if Boston had a metropolitan government. Instead we have cities racing to the bottom over an inevitable regional benefit because each might be entitled to some now much more marginal ROI via tax. Sad.
Click to expand...

I'm looking at this as a serious bone thrown for Fallon from Menino. Deval Patrick I'm assuming owed Menino a favor for the election, so this is what the taxpayers got.

72 Million in tax dollars from the city & state to lure Vertex from Cambridge to Boston. The politicans should be arrested for this one.

In the end does this build momentum for Fan Pier? I'm not sure. I personally believe we should let the private industry evolve this area instead of city govt doing everything to persuade companies to move down here.
 
If Vertex moves to Fan Pier, I do think this helps create momentum for S Boston waterfront. Do I think the tax breaks are a bit steep, yep. So whether this is a net gain or not we'll have to see. But I do think that, specifically for the waterfront, its a good injection that will help the area get closer to that critical mass.
 
So Boston should spent tens of millions of dollars to lure companies that were already in the region across the Charles so that the SBW can get built out instead of Kendall?
 
Yes and no. I think in this specific case, a larger company in bio tech leaving Kendal sq to help jump start a new neighborhood, it has good in it. I do think that the 70 million in tax breaks is a bit much. But it seems like the thing to do, have all municipalities race to the bottom (so that at the end of the day very rich people can make even more profit). And here is my main reasoning. I believe Kendall Sq, the bio tech capital of the world/ one of the most cocentrated areas of inteligence, can fill that void fairly quick. Where-as South Boston needs a shot in the arm. I think this goes a way towards that. I said it before, I view it like transplanting trees from a dense forest to start a new forest somewhere else.

So assuming, and yes its a large assumption, that Kendall Sq can recoup lost business. That the presence of this new large company (Vertex) is the final piece of confidence the private sector needs to truely become bullish. Then it could possibly be a net gain. South Boston has been slowly adding all these peices together, (ICA, Liberty Warf, Convention Center, apartments, hotels) that a real neighborhood needs. Now granted the architecture could be better, but I beileve it's really close to that critical cross-over. It could help it progress from a location some might be willing to take a chance on, to a place a lot of companies and people would like to call home. I think that Vertex might be that crucial amount of business/people/activity required to trigger the creation of this neighborhood (30 years in the making).
 
I agree that Vertex is a great candidate to kickstart the waterfront, as it desperately needs a kickstart. There are plenty of businesses that would love to move into Kendall Sq, but it's unlikely for one to voluntarily decide to be on the waterfront. There's gotta be some incentive to kick it off and then the development should follow if Vertex is successful down there.

There is definitely a place for both Kendall and the SBW and they should be complimenting each other, rather than competing with each other.
 
The article refers to Fan Pier as part of the "Marine Industrial Park." Fan Pier is one of the most spectacular parcels in the entire city, far from the Marine Industrial Park.

When the economy picks up, Fan Pier and the SBW will be well-positioned to attract development. Other areas of town such as Newmarket will not be as desirable for development.

To suggest an incentive of $72 million or even $12 million is required to move to Fan Pier smacks of cronyism, desperation and corporate welfare.

The "kickstart" argument has been used over and over again. I'd like to see a study that justifies this kickstart ? approvals for Fan Pier stated that the tax revenue would one of the prime benefits of development on that parcel.
 
A kick start study would be tough to have conclusive results on IMO. It's not the sole factor that goes into the decision of when and where private firms invest money. IMO its a contributer, to what degree is tough to gauge and probably changes from instance to instance. But I will say this, people and business usually don't want to be by themselves in isolation, at least in the context of a city. The more we fill in this neighborhood, the easier it becomes to entice others to complete the build out.
 
GW2500 said:
But I will say this, people and business usually don't want to be by themselves in isolation, at least in the context of a city. The more we fill in this neighborhood, the easier it becomes to entice others to complete the build out.
Click to expand...

That was pretty much my point.

And Sicilian, I'm not arguing for the city to offer ridiculous breaks to every single business to get them down there, but I think there has to be at least 1 to get things going. As it stands now, nothing is going on down there, there is no interest, and I don't blame them for not being interested. Who in their right mind would want to move to a desolate, neglected area? You have to incentivize it somehow.
 
I respect the arguments, and don't pretend to be an expert in what works. And I'm learning from what I read and it is interesting.

But I've heard the kickstart argument so many times on the SBW, to get the BCEC in the ground; to get BCEC hotels in the ground; to get the MBTA to improve the Silver line; to get ramps from CAT/Tunnel to be configured a certain way; and to get One Marina Park Drive approved as it is ? IMO, a malformed stump.

I dare say, the "kickstart" incentives end up hindering development because the payoff for property owners escalates each year, making it worth the wait. What I am suggesting is that if the taxpayer-financed spigot was cut off perhaps we would see more action instead of more hat-in-hand appeals from the development community.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top