Re: Filene's
from 1988 Filene's was owned by May's Dept stores of St. Louis although previously Filene's along with some other major Dept stores ( Abraham & Straus and Lazarus ) had been a founder of Federated Dept. stores of Cincinnati (1929)
Jordan Marsh had joined another chain of chains called Allied Dept. Stores (1928 or 1935 depending on the names) -- Allied eventually merged with Federated (newly emerged from bankruptcy in 1988) and then merged with Macy's 1994 and dispensed with the Jordan Marsh name in 1996
In 2005 in a bizarre "homecoming' -- Federated -- acquired May Dept stores and Filene's came home to Federated
Presumably the real estate of both Jordan Marsh and Filene's was then owned by Federated
Meanwhile Federated renamed itself as Macy's and all the other names disappeared thus ending the 100 year plus Jordan Marsh and Filene's names and giving Macy's / Federated 2 locations across Summer St. from each other
despite Menino's desire to have the Filene's building be the sucessor -- Macy's/ Federated/May/Allied (etc) -- decided to consolidate into the newer Jordan Marsh / Macy's and the Filene's site was surplus -- eventually it was sold to Vornado
http://bostonrealestateobserver.com/vornado-roth-deliberately-stalls-filenes/
" Vornado Realty Trust acquired the Filene’s Basement building in Downtown Crossing in July 2006 for $100 million after Federated Department Stores closed it. Filene’s Basement remained in operation at the site on a sublease until fall 2007, when the store was closed to make way for the $700 million mixed-use redevelopment of the site into a 38-story tower, including 1.2 million square feet encompassing office, condo, and hotel space. Filene’s Basement had expected to open a new store twice its previous size there (along with Target and Zara), in spring 2009 upon the project’s projected delivery. Vornado made its first Boston real estate acquisition in September 2005 with the $96 million purchase of the Boston Design Center in South Boston from the Davis Cos. The Filene’s Basement building purchase placed Vornado as landlord and co-developer with Gale International Realty. "
There is also something called Boston Global Investors which was listed on the One Franklin website
Thus the BRA and the City never had any ownership of the Filene's site
The only connection of the BRA was with permitting of the project as originally proposed (1.2 million sq ft.)
ironically the Jordan Marsh flagship store which was torn down in 1975 to make way for the current Macy's encompassed over 1.7 million sq. ft. in several interconnected buildings (tallest was 14 stories)
from Wikipedia:
" After World War II, the management of Jordan Marsh announced that it would build a new store in downtown Boston. Jordan's five older buildings would give way to a new building that would take up a full city block. Covering an area larger than Harvard Stadium, it would have two stories under ground; another 14 would rise into the air. It would have all the latest technology, including air conditioning, automatic doorways, block-long show windows, and radiant-heated sidewalks.[1] After the addition of the "new building" in 1949, the Jordan Marsh Complex was split into four distinct units; the 1949 new store, the original main store, annex, and bristol building. The Boston redevelopment authority estimated the complex's total retail space at 1,700,000 sq ft (160,000 m2), which made it overwhelmingly the largest retail venue in Boston "
