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

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Re: Filene's

I walked by 30 min ago and the site was completely dead.
 
Re: Filene's

They have a 7 to 2 or 7 to 3 type schedule. And very long lunches!
 
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Re: Filene's

tobyjug said:
Thhey have a 7 to 2 or 7 to 3 type schedule. And very long lunches!
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I suppose they do have to pace themselves so that the building isn't finished until the market turns around! I'm just bored of looking at the same thing from my office window.
 
Re: Filene's

There is a smaller crew on site now. Nothing much is happening inside the 1912 building. During my "tour" of the inside, there was no architectural detail to be seen anywhere. One of the supervisors I spoke with on another occasion said it would have been more cost effective to have gutted it out like the other building on site. I can't comment on the cost effectiveness, but there is certainly nothing worth saving on the inside.
 
Re: Filene's

tobyjug said:
They are beavering away removing rubble from the pit, with particular emphasis on the "I" beams. You can get big money for the scrap metal. That stuff will be on a ship to Asia in days.
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Re: Filene's

once again the site was completely dead when I walked by today. I would say they are moving at a snails pace but that would be giving them too much credit. I wonder if they are stalled until they secure the remainder of their financing.
 
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I doubt it, probably just waiting for the next parts to arrive.

Putting up a new building isn't like making food in the microwave. It takes a long time to get all the parts together. Tearing the original structure down is easy, now the hard part begins.
 
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just looks like they're digging away dirt, and it looks like they're more than halfway done.
 
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Where did all that dirt come from?

Is it all just ground-up debris, or have they dug below the original basement?
 
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The original basement in some parts of the building went down 5 levels. (I even fell into a sump pit that was even lower than that...) Maybe they are bringing the whole thing down that far now.

Just speculating.

You wanna talk about scrap metal... you should have seen some of the ancient HVAC equipment they had down in the bowels of this place. 3 generations of chillers were sitting next to each other. When one died, they just put a new one in next to it and left the previous. They also had some sump pumps working that were installed in the 30's with the original manuals still with them. Probably should have grabbed one for the archives. They don't make em like that anymore.
 
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I recall reading that the new Filene's Basement, when it reopens, will have one more selling level than the old one did.
 
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I can only hope that's true, and that it happens sooner rather than later. We desperately need some retail activity there. It's a mere shadow of what it once was.
 
Re: Filene's

Well, fuck. :(
Boston Globe - August 20, 2008
Hole in the funding
Tight credit market puts a snag in redevelopment of old Filene's site as a jewel of the new downtown

By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | August 20, 2008

The $650 million redevelopment of the historic Filene's building - which Mayor Thomas M. Menino envisions as the new center of downtown Boston - is struggling because the developers have been unable to raise financing.

An executive with knowledge of the project's financing said developers John B. Hynes III and Vornado Realty Trust have been battling an extremely tight credit market since they won city approvals to undertake the massive project almost one year ago.

"We would make the point that while it's a tough [financial] environment right now, we remain confident and committed to this project," said the executive, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the development.

Cary Raymond, a spokesman for the project, declined to comment yesterday.

Financial statements filed two weeks ago by the publicly-traded Vornado do not list the Filene's project as among the developments for which the company has received funding so far this year.

A small group of laborers has continued to work on the site, but the property at the high-traffic corner of Franklin and Washington streets has remained largely unchanged for the past few months.

According to a construction schedule filed with the city, the developers were to build the foundation beginning in March and working through next February. As of yesterday, the site was partially excavated, with workers removing soil and debris with a single excavator.

Meanwhile, Menino is launching a new marketing plan for a revived Downtown Crossing, branding it as "Boston's Meeting Place." The city and business partners have also begun placing new logos for shopping districts in vacant storefronts.

Hynes and Vornado are proposing to build a 38-story tower with retail on the first four floors, 250 hotel rooms over eight floors, 475,000 square feet of office space, and 166 condominiums on the top 12 floors. The project also includes a grocery store and about 300 underground parking spaces, according to filings with the city.

The original Filene's building, designated a local landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission, will be substantially preserved in the redevelopment effort. The project will also preserve a 1905 structure at Franklin and Hawley streets. Two newer buildings on the property have been demolished.

An executive at a firm working for the developers downplayed the financing matters as a temporary snag, adding the property has generated interest from hotel companies and potential high-end office tenants.

One potential tenant is the law firm Fish & Richardson, which has talked with developers about occupying a large chunk of space in the new tower. An executive there said the firm wants assurances the space will be ready. Fish & Richardson's current lease is up at the end of 2010, while the Filene's project is scheduled to be completed in early 2011.

"We're aware of the stories going around and we're watching it very carefully," said Tim French, managing principal of the firm.

Meanwhile, Filene's Basement is slated to move back into its below-ground space at the site earlier, in 2009. "As far as we know, everything is on target," said company spokeswoman Patricia Boudrot.

Gale International and Vornado are international companies with their own sources of capital to draw upon. Real estate executives said the development team's difficulty securing financing is more an indication of the unusually tight credit market than with any questions about the viability of the project.

"The financing climate is extremely difficult right now, but a project with such a strong mixed-use component will unequivocally be viable from a financing standpoint, and I would say sooner rather than later," said Robert Griffin, New England region president for the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.

The credit crunch arose in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis that caused heavy losses at the nation's largest investment banking firms. Wary of further losses, these and other financiers are reluctant to provide loans for development projects that would have won quick approval 18 months ago.

Vornado is a huge property owner based in New York that specializes in multistory retail projects across the country. It is working with Boston developer John Drew to build Waterside Place, a proposed residential and retail complex on the South Boston Waterfront.

Gale International, which developed the successful One Lincoln Street office tower in downtown Boston, is involved in several massive projects worldwide, including construction of the $30 billion New Songdo City in South Korea and Seaport Square, another mixed use project on the South Boston waterfront.

The Filene's project has strong backing from Menino, who views it as the catalyst for improving the gritty Washington Street corridor. The project will also upgrade access to the Downtown Crossing MBTA station and incorporate new seating, landscaping, trees and plantings and decorative lighting at the street level.

Of the 1.25 million square feet of development, about 300,000 is slated for retail use -a plan designed to satisfy the city's desire to create a more robust shopping district in the area. The development will also have about 146 luxury residences and 20 more at below-market prices, as well as a health club and spa.

Real estate professionals said the project is badly needed to improve the part of the city between the financial district and Tremont Street.

"This location is too vital not to have a centerpiece development," said Greg Vasil, chief executive of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. "It may take some time, but it will happen. The capital markets are just a tough place to be right now."

Casey Ross can be reached at cross@globe.com.
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Re: Filene's

(Statler beat me to posting the Globe article, so I've deleted the duplication, and just stuck with my comments on the story.)

Oh oh. (And is Thomas Palmer on vacation or no longer on the real estate beat?)

Vornado is also the developer that cleared the site at Connecticut and K streets in DC where Pelli has designed a clone of Druker's SCL building, and now no sign of construction. The buildings that Vornado tore down in DC didn't deserve to be saved, so having a big gravel field (unlike the Kensington sandbox) is not a cause for weeping.
 
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Re: Filene's

Does the city's permit include any penalty clause if they do not finish the project on time? And won't they owe Filene's Basement money as well if they can not reopen on schedule?
 
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Vornado is a huge property owner
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I wonder if there would be constitutional issues with passing a law that requires institutions to sell off holdings in order to secure financing to finish projects they have already started.

Failing that, go with ablarc's idea and tax the empty lot at full value at an enormous tax rate. They will find the money to build real quick.
 
Re: Filene's

statler said:
I wonder if there would be constitutional issues with passing a law that requires institutions to sell off holdings in order to secure financing to finish projects they have already started.

Failing that, go with ablarc's idea and tax the empty lot at full value at an enormous tax rate. They will find the money to build real quick.
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To suggestion #1, you might require a performance completion bond, but that would just raise the cost of doing any building in Boston.

Re suggestion #2, any such attempt would be thrown out in court. Its a punitive assessment, selectively applied, and would be unconstitutional.
 
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