Future Skyline

Harbor garage. I am making a wild bet Chiofaro will launch another iteration of this now that the harbor municipal plan is out. (plus, he continues to prominently display models of this development in the lobby of 1 International Place, which I presume he would not do if he'd thrown in the towel).
 
Don Chiofaro is going to pull off the miracle, and taste victory at HG.

A few months ago, i said, October, but it could be around Thanksgiving, or maybe it comes back after the new year. but this thing is getting the restart before not too long. It's also possible the political winds are turning more in DC's favor.

TheRifleman said:
Columbus Ave?
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Ahh the Maltese Falcon of building projects.

maybe the good Moderator can re-open that thread too!
 
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Ok, odurandina, I threw in my vote (which is genuine), but please no need to launch into another round of HG ranting. Patience, patience. We shall see what comes over the next few months.
 
They should take every single person that is against knocking down the garage and make them sit in front of it for 24 hrs in lawn chairs. Then they should be whisked into a backroom with all kinds of renders, vr goggles, models, and asked do you understand yet?
 
stick n move said:
They should take every single person that is against knocking down the garage and make them sit in front of it for 24 hrs in lawn chairs. Then they should be whisked into a backroom with all kinds of renders, vr goggles, models, and asked do you understand yet?
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No one is pro-garage. Setting up a false choice like that is cheap tactics.
 
CSTH said:
No one is pro-garage. Setting up a false choice like that is cheap tactics.
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It's true. Big Don went in with that strategy, overemphasizing how great it would be to have the garage gone and some views of the ocean poking through. At the end of the day, the dissenters didn't care about that nearly as much as their blocked HT window views and disruption to the aquarium.

Stick,
there are plenty who would rather see the garage gone, but replaced with a park w/ underground parking garage, with half built at a time to keep some parking online. (I know, financially ridiculous/infeasible, but protestors don't care)

If this project takes off, it will be because Don presents a beautiful, restrained, slim, tower (or towers) that adheres to the newly released harbor municipal plan...not simply because he is replacing the garage.

(and I say this hating the garage as much as anyone else)
 
CSTH said:
No one is pro-garage. Setting up a false choice like that is cheap tactics.
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It's not a false choice. For financial feasibility, any replacement will have to be an enormous project.

Basically, the options are:
1. Leave the garage alone.
2. Build a few floors on top of the existing garage, leaving the barrier in place permanently.
3. Replace it with something huge.
..........
4. Some uber-rich multi-billionaire prince/sultan/whatever buys the garage, and rips it down to create a wonderful park for all to enjoy.

Here's a fun fact: Option 4 is never going to happen.
 
^It 'needs' to be 'huge' only in the sense that that scale will be necessary in order for Don C to get his investment back. The price he paid assumed that he could get permission to build something huge - but that's a risk that he owns.
 
CSTH said:
^It 'needs' to be 'huge' only in the sense that that scale will be necessary in order for Don C to get his investment back. The price he paid assumed that he could get permission to build something huge - but that's a risk that he owns.
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Yes, but that's the current reality of the site. If a huge project isn't approved, the garage stays indefinitely.
 
DZH22 said:
Yes, but that's the current reality of the site. If a huge project isn't approved, the garage stays indefinitely.
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A huge project was approved.

Just apparently not huge enough for the developer that wants to make children cry by forcing the aquarium into bankruptcy and destroying the one thing that actually brings a million more people to the waterfront than his Gucci bag store lobby would.
 
^ the simple truth is that Don C completely under-accounted for the interests of the aquarium in his last pitch. Sure: a profit motive. But also: not thinking/caring sufficiently about ripple effect.

Point is: if he actually tried (and maybe he will) he was/is in an outstanding position to actually help and support the aquarium. He could actually help set up future revenue streams to them if he really cared. He could provide transit and parking during construction if he really cared. He could have probably identified other offsets that would have benefited the aquarium and included them in his pitch.

But, clear as day, he simply whiffed on this one. Did not account for a very real stakeholder.

So, back to my point to Stick: this really isn't just about making the garage go away. And now that we have this harbor municipal plan, maybe he's got another shot to re-propose this with more success.
 
wtf? No one, least of all DC is going to let the fish or their obstructionist management staff go hungry or lose the kids. The city lived through the Big Dig this is like 1/35th the austerity of that.
 
odurandina said:
wtf? No one, least of all DC is going to let the fish or their obstructionist management staff go hungry or lose the kids. The city lived through the Big Dig this is like 1/35th the austerity of that.
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My bad if i did not word my post clearly; I am not saying DC meant any harm to the fish or kids. I am saying he should have anticipated the aquarium's rebuttal. The 2014 articles (pre- Nigella protest) never mentioned anything about specific measures he would take to support them during construction - and there's no reason, as a businessperson, that he should not have anticipated that they'd emerge as a key stakeholder.

Remember: I voted for Don for surprise october proposal. I am a supporter. I just think it was a whiff on his part to not foresee that rebuttal.
 
I have it on good authority from people deep on the inside that one day something may or may not happen at the aquarium garage site.
 
^^ Now see, my sources on the inside said just the opposite!
 
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