If true, I'll agree with what you are saying. However, but there's a logical reason to this. You may have missed it from a post of mine a while back
Gainsborough/Cullinane is the site of the propose Building K. Here's some background information about it.
http://archboston.org/community/showpost.php?p=60815&postcount=1
And here is the reason why the plans for this dorm stopped.
"
Northeastern officials explained that after they borrowed money for the construction of International Village and the economic crisis hit, the university had to reevaluate. They had accumulated about $820 million worth of debt, about the former size of the endowment, which is now closer to $520 million, McCarthy said. He added that the university isn’t able to take out any more loans for construction on Building K, a 600-bed dorm to be built east of the Curry Student Center, or other housing projects at this time."
Now assuming that the situation hasn't changed and that Northeastern University will not be able to take out loans for constructing dorms, the school is presented two choice.
1) Save up funds for the next ten years (based on the fact that NU plans to buy the property in 10 years from Phoenix Property) and then purchase/build the dorm on the Y or Building K (I'm not sure if the costs match) on their own.
or
2) Go with the current plan, which is have Phoenix Property buy and build the dorm and then pay it off late, without having to distribute a large proportion of its funds that goes to teacher, maintenance, etc. to constructing the dorm.
Given the fact that Boston has demanded that Northeastern put more of its student in on-campus housing as soon as possible, the only logical solution is Option 2. There are many advantages to this:
1) Funding for teachers, maintenance, etc. will not be reduced because Northeastern is given 10 years to slowly accumulate the fund to buy the property.
Only a small portion will be allocated on buying the building each year instead of depriving the school of badly needed fund to run it by dumping all the money during the first year.
2) Due to their loan constraints, Northeastern will not be able to borrow money to build on its own campus.
This alternative plan allows Northeastern to build a dorm regardless, albeit, not on their own campus yet.
3) Instead of having to wait 10 years (which would mean 10 years of the neighbors and government officials complaining that Northeastern has not fulfilled its promise), Northeastern can fulfill that promise now. Plus the current proposal has 120 more beds than Building K
This is the reason joegenius.
It's not NU trying to grab land. It's NU trying to fulfill its promise when no conventional options are available.
And alumnus can also mean any student who attende the university, whether they graduated or not. So yes, you're still an alumnus.
Since I have presented NU's real intention, we can now discredit this argument that NU hates black people.
If the folks from the Y never had to wait for a machine, then the Y didn't have enough members to support the gym to begin with. The Marino is a larger facility and able to accomodate the surplus. Thus there should be no change for the members (who should have to wait for a machine at the Y if it was at optimal capacity).
I believe it is not listed in any IMP for the sole reason that the building will not be entirely owned by Northeastern until 10 years later. Not entirely sure on this but the unique way of handling this construction may allow it to be left off the IMP until later.
If this dorm is the same type of dorm as IV, then the cost would be around $8000-$9000 per academic year (going by current rates). If the dorm is the same type of dorm as West Village, then the cost would be around $10,400-$12,600 per academic year (going by current rates). Note these rates are NU's enhanced dorms (or the "luxury dorm" people are talking about). This is the same type of dorm being built in GrandMarc. Northeastern University wouldn't create a separate category for these dorms (What are they going to call them? Super-enhanced dorm). As IV was built during my time at NU, rates for all dorms did not go up dramatically and it's unlikely to do so now with this dorm tower. This should relieve people of their fears that rates will skyrocket.
Also, as my conversation with data has shown, NU's dorm is at market rate and comparable to the apartments in the area (his 1 BR apartment cost the same amount as the on-campus 1 BR apartment, though he is allowed to share).