Millennium Tower (Filene's) | 426 Washington Street | Downtown

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Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

BosDevelop said:
wait, there is someone looking to build another 600+ foot residential building in Downtown Crossing? If there is, I am all for $500,000 a year in tax breaks to retail tenants of those buildings as well. Especially if they will generate tens of millions of dollars in taxes after any incentives. This is simple math and good business that goes on in every city in this country in some form or another.
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That doesn't address Rifleman's argument, which seems to be one part "It's not FAIR to everyone else to only give tax breaks to preferred developers" and one part General Taxation Angst.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

BussesAin'tTrains said:
That doesn't address Rifleman's argument, which seems to be one part "It's not FAIR to everyone else to only give tax breaks to preferred developers" and one part General Taxation Angst.
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One might argue that there are a bunch of buildings in the immediate vicinity who just had their potential property values increased by today's groundbreaking/announcement. While they aren't the direct benefit of any sort of tax break, they will be the beneficieries of anything positive that happens at the Filene's site.

One can look to what's been happening at 45 Province the past few months to see what kind of spillover effect this development can have to surrounding property owners.

I think people are also discounting the significance of having a full scale grocer in this location. Roche's presence basically takes the concept of a full-time residential neighborhood from theory to reality.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

I know we're all re-hashing the same points. Sorry.

About your comment above. If the tax break was explained as being necessary "to bring the neighborhood back to life" that would at least make sense. That's not what I've read came out of the mayor's mouth, however. He says the tax breaks are needed "in order for the developer to move forward".
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

JohnAKeith said:
I know we're all re-hashing the same points. Sorry.

About your comment above. If the tax break was explained as being necessary "to bring the neighborhood back to life" that would at least make sense. That's not what I've read came out of the mayor's mouth, however. He says the tax breaks are needed "in order for the developer to move forward".
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If the developers financing is contingent on a certain percentage of the project being leased at X dollars per square foot, and Roche is looking for a bone for setting up shop in an as yet-to-be proven location, that may very well be true.

And Menino wouldn't be the first politician to cite the wrong reason for an otherwise justifiable decision.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

jdrinboston said:
If the developers financing is contingent on a certain percentage of the project being leased at X dollars per square foot, and Roche is looking for a bone for setting up shop in an as yet-to-be proven location, that may very well be true.

And Menino wouldn't be the first politician to cite the wrong reason for an otherwise justifiable decision.
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Your delusional if you think that. If the developers financing depends on a contingentency then he might need to find more investors to recapitalize the project.

Roche is looking for a bone. Then use a marketing department to entice their competitors Market Basket, Trader Joes, Stop N Shop, Shaws,..........

If you can't read between the lines this is nothing more than a HANDOUT for some friends on the backs of the citizens.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Who knew that all it took was better marketing to get a supermarket in an area that hasn't had one in years. Us idiot North Enders should take note!
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

underground said:
Who knew that all it took was better marketing to get a supermarket in an area that hasn't had one in years. Us idiot North Enders should take note!
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Really it must be us IDIOT Taxpayers who continue to support Millennium marketing dept with tax assistance since their employees cannot entice their own tenants to occupy their buildings without the taxpayers assistance.

Wouldn't it be great if every company could get this type of edge?

These leaders are garbage.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

TheRifleman said:
Your delusional if you think that. If the developers financing depends on a contingentency then he might need to find more investors to recapitalize the project.

Roche is looking for a bone. Then use a marketing department to entice their competitors Market Basket, Trader Joes, Stop N Shop, Shaws,..........

If you can't read between the lines this is nothing more than a HANDOUT for some friends on the backs of the citizens.
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My mortgage has about 8 pages of contingencies on it and it is far less than $600 million. I assure you, Millennium's financing has contingencies....lots, and lots of them, regardless of the number of investors.

I actually work in the local grocery industry so I'll give you a summary how each conversation with each chain went.

Stop & Shop "We're already committed to the North Station project, plus this site isn't really our thing."

Market Basket "If we can't own and develop the building, we're not interested. Afterall, everybody thinks we're a grocery company when in reality, our business is real estate. Plus, we're going to be too busy in court fighting with our family members." (They've put a moratorium on all future store openings pending resolution of a legal battle between the two factions of the family.

Shaws "Are you crazy. We've shut down half of our New England stores over the past 3 years and you want us to open up a store in a location that is likely going to be a "shrink trap" for the first 5 years of its existence?"

Traders or Whole Foods doesn't move the needle here. You're looking for a full-service, mainstream store here.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

jdrinboston said:
My mortgage has about 8 pages of contingencies on it and it is far less than $600 million. I assure you, Millennium's financing has contingencies....lots, and lots of them, regardless of the number of investors.

I actually work in the local grocery industry so I'll give you a summary how each conversation with each chain went.

Stop & Shop "We're already committed to the North Station project, plus this site isn't really our thing."

Market Basket "If we can't own and develop the building, we're not interested. Afterall, everybody thinks we're a grocery company when in reality, our business is real estate. Plus, we're going to be too busy in court fighting with our family members." (They've put a moratorium on all future store openings pending resolution of a legal battle between the two factions of the family.

Shaws "Are you crazy. We've shut down half of our New England stores over the past 3 years and you want us to open up a store in a location that is likely going to be a "shrink trap" for the first 5 years of its existence."

Traders or Whole Foods doesn't move the needle here. You're looking for a full-service, mainstream store here.
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Thats my point. Thats not the taxpayers problems. "Its not my fault they paid too much for the site" Didn't our Mayor quote that saying?
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

TheRifleman said:
Thats my point. Thats not the taxpayers problems. "Its not my fault they paid too much for the site" Didn't our Mayor quote that saying?
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Who says Millennium paid too much?

I'm telling you as someone who has 30+ years in the grocery business, I wouldn't greenlight this location if I was making the decision for a grocery retailer. There are a whole host of pitfalls here.

Yet, for this whole downtown as 24-hour neighorhood concept, we need a full-service grocery store and frankly, this spot is probably the best one put one in. So how do you convince me to go all-in on something that you need, but poses a sizeable risk to me?
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

jdrinboston said:
Who says Millennium paid too much?

I'm telling you as someone who has 30+ years in the grocery business, I wouldn't greenlight this location if I was making the decision for a grocery retailer. There are a whole host of pitfalls here.

Yet, for this whole downtown as 24-hour neighorhood concept, we need a full-service grocery store and frankly, this spot is probably the best one put one in. So how do you convince me to go all-in on something that you need, but poses a sizeable risk to me?
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Who says Millennium paid too much?
When the taxpayers need to come to the rescue for handouts on projects that don't make economic sense for selected few we have problems.
The working-class are not slaves to a system that continues to enrich the politically connected based on economic BULLSHIT.

Maybe DOWNTOWN was never supposed to have a grocery market. When the price is right then maybe their would be interest in the future for the Grocery Players. The BRA really screwed this site up big time. And in the end what did the developers do for the area besides TAKE the taxpayers money and make their money. I'm sure when the bank cuts that check to start building 10 Million dollars goes right to the developer's pocket.

(BRA is a complete FAILURE)
Filenes--What did the taxpayers get? Nothing we had to give the developer a break.
Liberty Mutual--What did the taxpayers get? Nothing they threaten to leave town In the backbay which has 5% vacancy. So the corrupt shitheads give them 46.5 Million dollar tax incentives
Fan Pier---What did the taxpayers get? Nothing they actually relocated a major Biotech customer already paying taxes in Cambridge to finally get some momentum going on in the Seaport (a Major Traffic issues will plaque this area)
State Street (why would we give them tax breaks to relocate from DTX to Seaport)
Over 100 Million in tax breaks

The BRA is failing big time. NO VISION
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

So the Burnham Building is already under construction, correct?

Is it a reasonable thought to think that by 2016 this project will be done, or almost done?
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

DTX has a chicken/egg problem and this tax break to the tenants solves it.

It is relatively tough to attract residents to an area without a grocery store.

It is tough to attract a grocery store to an area without many residents.

If the city can spend $500k (from new revenues generated from the very same building!) a year to assume the risk for the grocery store until sufficient residents move in that the store is viable, then they will have successfully transformed a neighborhood for the better (increased urbanism) and increased the tax-base in both property and sales taxes for the long haul. Gold-star for effective city planning and ROI.

Doing nothing and waiting for the chicken/egg to sort it out on their is not a terrible idea. Letting the chickens and eggs sort things out on their own is >90% of business in Boston no matter how much some aB posters and Herald commenters whine about the parts that government meddles in. In this case and others, the government gets involved to put things on the right track.

I don't always agree with what the government chooses to invest in, but this choice is 100% on the side of good urbanism and making downtown a place for Bostonians rather than just suburban commuters and tourists.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

TheRifleman said:
Who says Millennium paid too much?
When the taxpayers need to come to the rescue for handouts on projects that don't make economic sense for selected few we have problems.
The working-class are not slaves to a system that continues to enrich the politically connected based on economic BULLSHIT.

Maybe DOWNTOWN was never supposed to have a grocery market. When the price is right then maybe their would be interest in the future for the Grocery Players. The BRA really screwed this site up big time. And in the end what did the developers do for the area besides TAKE the taxpayers money and make their money. I'm sure when the bank cuts that check to start building 10 Million dollars goes right to the developer's pocket.

(BRA is a complete FAILURE)
Filenes--What did the taxpayers get? Nothing we had to give the developer a break.
Liberty Mutual--What did the taxpayers get? Nothing they threaten to leave town In the backbay which has 5% vacancy. So the corrupt shitheads give them 46.5 Million dollar tax incentives
Fan Pier---What did the taxpayers get? Nothing they actually relocated a major Biotech customer already paying taxes in Cambridge to finally get some momentum going on in the Seaport (a Major Traffic issues will plaque this area)
State Street (why would we give them tax breaks to relocate from DTX to Seaport)
Over 100 Million in tax breaks

The BRA is failing big time. NO VISION
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The sky is falling!! Boston is on the verge of collapse!

And I hate to be pedantic, but when you type something like "a Major Traffic issues will plaque this area," which contains singular/plural confusion, capital/lowercase confusion, no period at the end of the sentence (similar to may of your other "sentences"), and you use a q in place of a g (plaque is on one's teeth, yes?) it makes me much less likely to want to wade through your screeds. When your hyperbole is thrown into the mix, it's even worse. Mostly I keep up with your posts just to see what everyone else is responding to.

Point being, sounding uneducated makes you much less likely to convince people of your point. All of this also reminds me of when you called the Liberty Mutual building a "FAT BITCH IN THE SKYLINE."
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

fattony said:
DTX has a chicken/egg problem and this tax break to the tenants solves it.

It is relatively tough to attract residents to an area without a grocery store.

It is tough to attract a grocery store to an area without many residents.

If the city can spend $500k (from new revenues generated from the very same building!) a year to assume the risk for the grocery store until sufficient residents move in that the store is viable, then they will have successfully transformed a neighborhood for the better (increased urbanism) and increased the tax-base in both property and sales taxes for the long haul. Gold-star for effective city planning and ROI.

Doing nothing and waiting for the chicken/egg to sort it out on their is not a terrible idea. Letting the chickens and eggs sort things out on their own is >90% of business in Boston no matter how much some aB posters and Herald commenters whine about the parts that government meddles in. In this case and others, the government gets involved to put things on the right track.

I don't always agree with what the government chooses to invest in, but this choice is 100% on the side of good urbanism and making downtown a place for Bostonians rather than just suburban commuters and tourists.
Click to expand...

Considering how much waste happens in our state Government and how much money gets blown on ridiculous things, I have zero issues with them giving the modest tax break to this project.
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

boston_millennium-tower-boston_2.jpg


boston_millennium-tower-boston_3.jpg



http://millenniumptrs.com/
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

tower.jpg


I wish the masonry on the Washington St side of the tower extended five stories higher to match the height of the Burnham building, or at least two stories higher to match the roofline of the Franklin St side's masonry - or is this rendering out of date?
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

fattony said:
DTX has a chicken/egg problem and this tax break to the tenants solves it.

It is relatively tough to attract residents to an area without a grocery store.

It is tough to attract a grocery store to an area without many residents.

If the city can spend $500k (from new revenues generated from the very same building!) a year to assume the risk for the grocery store until sufficient residents move in that the store is viable, then they will have successfully transformed a neighborhood for the better (increased urbanism) and increased the tax-base in both property and sales taxes for the long haul. Gold-star for effective city planning and ROI.

Doing nothing and waiting for the chicken/egg to sort it out on their is not a terrible idea. Letting the chickens and eggs sort things out on their own is >90% of business in Boston no matter how much some aB posters and Herald commenters whine about the parts that government meddles in. In this case and others, the government gets involved to put things on the right track.

I don't always agree with what the government chooses to invest in, but this choice is 100% on the side of good urbanism and making downtown a place for Bostonians rather than just suburban commuters and tourists.
Click to expand...

+1000 couldn't say it better!
 
Re: Millennium Tower - Filene's

Was just exploring Millennium's website and found something interesting. They have a Millennium Tower in San Francisco that looks quite similar and is pretty much the same height!

Millennium Tower San Francisco:
w0om4m.png
 
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