Menino threatens to oust Filene?s site developer
Vornado chief?s remarks irk mayor
By Casey Ross, Globe Staff | March 9, 2010
Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday threatened to revoke permits for the stalled Filene?s redevelopment and even take the property by eminent domain, accusing one of the developers of enacting a policy to deliberately sit on idle properties to pressure government officials to provide funding.
Menino told Vornado Realty Trust in a letter last night that the city will explore those actions after comments last week by its chairman, Steven Roth, convinced him the New York company is deliberately neglecting the Filene?s site so Boston officials will help finance construction.
?This development is too important to Downtown Crossing and to the entire City of Boston to be used as a bargaining chip to improve your bottom line,?? Menino wrote.
The mayor was reacting to comments Roth made during a presentation at Columbia University that were reported in the New York Observer.
Roth was quoted as saying he sat on the former Alexander?s Department store in midtown Manhattan in the 1990s, allowing it become blighted in order to squeeze money out of public officials.
Vornado acquired the site after the store closed and, similar to the Filene?s site, left it half demolished before eventually building a glass skyscraper that now houses the Bloomberg financial news company.
?Why did I do nothing??? Roth said, according to the Observer. ?The more the building was a blight; the more governments would want this to be redeveloped; the more help they would give us when the time came.??
Roth could not be reached for comment. A Vornado spokeswoman declined to comment, saying she was unable to reach Roth or other officials at the company.
At the Filene?s site in Boston, Vornado and partner Gale International halted construction on the $700 million project in the summer of 2008, saying they had been unable to borrow funds to resume the redevelopment. The site, at the center of Downtown Crossing, includes a large hole in the ground, as well as the skeletal remains of several buildings.
Menino said Roth?s comments about the Alexander project ?undercut the credibility of your team?s explanation in Boston.??
?While I appreciate that there are global economic forces that have slowed the progress of development across the country, your comments and past actions at the Alexander?s Department store indicate that a consistent policy of indifference is at work at [Filene?s].??
Also in the letter, Menino wrote that he is directing the Boston Redevelopment Authority to examine ?eminent domain options?? for the site; he also wrote that he has asked the BRA to reevaluate city approvals given for the project.
Menino has made revitalization of Downtown Crossing a priority, and at his insistence, Gale and Vornado draped tarps over the half-demolished buildings. However, the developers have resisted other calls to improve the site because of the project?s struggling finances.
Original plans for the project called for a 39-story tower with a hotel, stores, offices, and more than 160 condominiums, but the developers have been considering ways to scale back the work to make it easier to finance.
Casey Ross can be reached at
cross@globe.com.
