Fenway Center (One Kenmore) | Turnpike Parcel 7, Beacon Street | Fenway

(insert sad trombone sound or Nelson from Simpsons)
 
tobyjug said:
(insert sad trombone sound or Nelson from Simpsons)
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No -- Insert the music from the Godfadda -- and queue the Marlon Brando stuffed cotton in damout line about "he coulda come to me....."

"Bonasera... Bonasera... What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? Had you come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day."
Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). In this opening scene in the movie, undertaker Amerigo Bonasera (Salvatore Corsitto) is telling the Godfather (Marlon Brando) how his daughter has been savagely beaten up when she tried to keep her honor. He had gone through the regular justice system, but the boys involved got off with suspended sentences. He has now come to the Godfather for some real justice. After hearing his story, the Godfather asks, "Why did you go to the police? Why didn't you come to me first?
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Wonder if Rosenthal backed the wrong guy in the election and now he's trying at the last minute to get something from Menino?
 
Good for Rosenthal! I'm glad a prominent real estate developer has finally showed they have the balls to call out Menino on this issue.
 
I got no dog in this fight ^^^^, but Rosenthal's company has zero experience in commercial development, has developed only one property in Boston -- a parking garage -- and its portfolio of properties are apartment complexes in the distant Boston suburbs and in Texas. So like the developer of Columbus Center, no track record for a project this scale, very big ambitions, complex air rights construction, and great difficulty getting financing, given he probably can't leverage his current portfolio.
 
dshoost88 said:
Good for Rosenthal! I'm glad a prominent real estate developer has finally showed they have the balls to call out Menino on this issue.
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DSH-- A bit late -- sort of like jumping up and down on the pier as the ship sails out of the harbor -- Meninio will be a "Perffesso" at BU in 2 weeks or so -- what's Rosenthal going to do then -- picket outside the new Menino Urban Studies Center's P.O.Box
 
1) I have no doubt City Hall played favorites;
2) How many times can John Rosenthal explain away his inability to start construction on this project?
 
John Rosenthal is asking Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s administration for a $7.8 million tax break to help build a massive complex of buildings near Fenway Park.

Though his request was rebuffed by former mayor Thomas M. Menino, Rosenthal submitted a new application to Walsh, and so far his pitch is getting a warmer reception.

“John’s a good man and I know he’s been working on this project for a long time,” Walsh said in a recent interview with The Boston Globe. “We’re going to look at [his proposal] and do what’s best for the city.”

Rosenthal said he has been able to reduce costs by $40 million through engineering efficiencies and negotiations with builders, but that he needs tax help from the city to close the remaining gap.

If the city grants the requested tax relief, Rosenthal said he would aim to start construction by next fall.
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http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...-tax-breaks/oQGUyOm5vHGXfkNXVYp9PP/story.html
 
Agreed. It's time for this puppy to be put down for good. I would rather nothing at this point than what's in that latest rendering.

Why is it that the quality of each new rendering is inversely proportional to the amount of time and money Rosethal keeps asking for?
 
Wow. This thing has really taken a turn for the worse.
 
Can some post the new rendering? Im up against the pay wall.
 
WestView-without.jpg


It's really unfortunate, but I still want to see the pike get decked over in any location possible. Bring back the towers of the original renderings.
 
Good God. Euthanize this proposal.

If this guy says a tax break of 1.5% the value of his project is "do or die" then he simply is all hat and no cattle.
 
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I just did some quick google-ing, and it looks like the exact same rendering from this October Globe article : http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/10/30/fenway-center-developer-seeks-city-tax-breaks/W2YseE12MjJUB5KFWSAmtJ/story.html

FenwayCenterWestView.jpg


Looks like the "$40 million through engineering efficiencies and negotiations with builders" was just cutting out the tower in the back.

Edit:By the way, if they're going to lop off the tower in the back, they should at least go through with the decking, to allow for future building, and leave it as a open space for the time being. I would think that the tower alone would be ~$40mill, without the decking.
 
Re: Fenway Center (One Kenmore, Mass Turnpike PARCEL 7)

For Comparison:

2009:
21kenmore-pgB5__1232535590_4407.gif
 
I'm really conflicted on this. On one hand, that area between Brookline Ave and Beacon Street is a blighted, urban hellscape of parking lots and decrepit buildings. Any sort of development would greatly improve the whole area.

On the other hand, this project seems to be getting worse and worse, and who knows what we would finally end up with. If we ditched Rosenthal in favor of a new developer, we could see this area undeveloped for another 5+ years before someone else comes along.
 
FenwayResident said:
I'm really conflicted on this. On one hand, that area between Brookline Ave and Beacon Street is a blighted, urban hellscape of parking lots and decrepit buildings. Any sort of development would greatly improve the whole area.

On the other hand, this project seems to be getting worse and worse, and who knows what we would finally end up with. If we ditched Rosenthal in favor of a new developer, we could see this area undeveloped for another 5+ years before someone else comes along.
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As much as I'd like to see the Pike bridged over, is this an instance where we i.e. the city, are unable to see the forest through the trees? How much better would the neighborhood be if we were just able to develop those parking lots, without bridging the Pike, at least not in this phase? Based on this project and the failed Columbus Center project, I wonder if the city needs to really promote the development of the "low hanging" fruit lots in order to leave the air rights projects as the last real opportunity for development.

With that said, Rosenthal clearly can't get this done.
 
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FenwayResident said:
I'm really conflicted on this. On one hand, that area between Brookline Ave and Beacon Street is a blighted, urban hellscape of parking lots and decrepit buildings. Any sort of development would greatly improve the whole area.

On the other hand, this project seems to be getting worse and worse, and who knows what we would finally end up with. If we ditched Rosenthal in favor of a new developer, we could see this area undeveloped for another 5+ years before someone else comes along.
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We may need the extra 5 years to perform the exorcism on the Pike air rights that have been cursed for almost 50 years.

But I think in this case you have to look at the trending more than the value of trying to salvage something from nothing. It's getting worse at a steady and seemingly irreversible rate, and the developer's demands for a freebie getting more outlandish. The odds of it imploding into nothing or netting something we truly regret being built are very high, and that's going to waste more time and more years of blight than cutting ties and starting over with this as an utmost priority. Unless the trend reverses...not just slows its nosedive...there's little practical to save. It's chasing a moving object that's going to decay a lot more in the process of trying to save it, so it's not all that useful to have a picture in one's head of an acceptable "stop-loss" compromise development when we're nowhere near achieving stop-loss.
 
As much as I hate to agree, f-line and jdrinboston are right. Rosenthal can't get this one done, and it's time to scrap this project for the time being. In the grand scheme of things, 5 or so years isn't a ton of time, and the trade off for a better proposal would be worth the wait.

As jdrinboston said, promote the development of the lots around the fenway center project, and this will increase the apeal to develop over the pike.

Still sad to see this one pared down to nothing.
 
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