I didn't follow the entitlement process closely, but I'm sure a pound of flesh would have been required in any case. I'm assuming the lure of Kendall office rents was the key factor. If they could have landed a flagship tech or biotech firm looking for a Cambridge location, it could have been a home run. It was a bigger risk with a bigger potential reward.
A residential conversion would have had its own risks and complications, so we'll never know. However, it seems to me that this building was right on the edge of being dimensionally compatible with a residential conversion, which might not have been the home run they were looking for, but it probably wouldn't have been a fire sale either.
