This is not that positive to be focused on one industry.
As a neighborhood resident, I have to say I would be strongly opposed to turning this site into a college dorm unless there was some key mitigation.
And we have a request here from the United Front of Downtown Crossing Residents for, uh, um, well they seem to be asking for Topless Tuesdays.
They also are demanding that the dorms not have curtains installed.
I tend to agree with this but higher ed is a bit different from industries like steelwork, bio-tech or finance.
The likely-hood of a higher ed industry-wide collapse is exceedingly rare (and if it did happen, we would have a much larger problem on our hands).
Also rather than just providing the city with a mass of 9-5 workers (most of whom live in the suburbs), Colledges and universities provided actually (albeit temporary) residents and in turn the city must provided shops and services for them. Think grocery stores, furniture stores, barber shops, banks, etc.
So while I think Boston should diversify itself a bit (especially by regaining its footing in the finance sector), if we are going to put a lot of eggs in one basket, this isn't a bad basket to put them in.
^^^ Wouldn't this get taxed?
In theory, if a 501(C)(3) owned it, and if it were used for the non-profit's stated purposes, no.
But it is never that black and white. I imagine there would be retail on the lower levels; that space gets taxed. I imagine that a university would not be the owner, so we would be unpeeling the owner's accounting to see what really is going on.
I'm very much a pro-development guy, but I would be completely against student housing at this site. I'd rather have a hole in the ground until the market turns around and financing is available for a decent mixed use project. Student housing will just mean more Bollocos and Verizon stores in DTC. I'd rather see a project that gets a variety of people living downtown.
Hynes has the city by the balls
I wonder if he's politically connected or anything. Anybody know what his dad did for a living?
I agree - Filling DTX with students will bring some of the Central-Inman-Harvard-Davis energy into downtown Boston, and the area needs that.
Everything around that area would be CVS, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, .....You get the picture.