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

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Re: Filene's

cden4 said:
Not directly related to Filene's but pretty darn cool:

Washington Street in 1906
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I dunno, that looks pretty Manhattan-like to me. The de-Manhattanization (and de-Bostonization) of Boston must continue!
 
Re: Filene's

Yea still, Washington Street got off easy.

185_The-New-Boston:-On-t257407.jpg

bostoncityhall.jpg
 
Re: Filene's

Patriots_1228 said:
Yea still, Washington Street got off easy.
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Phew, that's a relief. That top picture of Scollay Square looks a little bit like Herald Square -- which is in MANHATTAN. We were lucky to dodge that bullet and stamp out that frightening, un-Bostonian approximation of Manhattan.
 
Re: Filene's

Banker & Tradesman - April 5, 2010
Vornado?s Blunders Shed Light On Boston Power Dynamics
In Tug Of War Between Menino & Roth, Roth May Have More To Lose

By Scott Van Voorhis
Banker & Tradesman Columnist

The recent public relations fiasco that led one of the Big Apple?s most powerful developers to apologize on bended knee to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino was quite enlightening, to say the least.

First it shows that Boston?s mayor-for-life has more leverage here than some may realize:

Vornado, the New York developer best known around these parts for the Filene?s debacle, is also a key investor in Suffolk Downs, which may be in line for a huge windfall if and when casino gaming is legalized in Massachusetts.

I am not suggesting that Menino would start messing with Suffolk, which he very much wants to see transformed into a casino resort. Still, Vornado and its fellow Suffolk Downs investors need to keep the mayor firmly on their side. Without his active support they can kiss goodbye all those dreams of hitting the jackpot.

Secondly, the mayor has the good fortune to be squaring off against a billionaire who has demonstrated a keen talent for putting his foot in his mouth ? despite the services of one of New York?s most high-powered public relations firms.

?It does look like (Vornado Chairman Steven Roth) was expounding his strategy and tactics on his New York project and he was just caught up in his braggadocio,? said Geri Denterlein, a top player on Boston?s public relations scene who knows a thing or two about developers. ?From a Boston perspective it was Mayor, 1; Vornado, zero.?

Who Gives A Hoot?

For anyone coming to this late, let?s recap.

Steve Roth, chairman of Vornado, brags to a class of Columbia University architecture students about one of his hard-headed negotiating tactics ? letting construction slide on a prominent Manhattan development site, making it an urban eyesore in a successful bid to extract public subsidies.

The comments landed first in the New York Observer and then on Menino?s desk on the fifth floor at City Hall. Offered up a slow and easy pitch, Menino hit Roth?s ill-advised comments out of the park, quickly drawing the link to the slowly rotting Filene?s project and slamming them as ?simply outrageous.?

After initial silence, the standoff broke when Roth flew into Boston recently and delivered an apology to Menino.

So what gave here?

Maybe Vornado doesn?t give a hoot whether the half-demolished block of the former Filene?s complex ever becomes the shiny tower the project?s developers pledged to build. Or at least Vornado?s not in any hurry until the price is right (read: with massive public subsidies).

But with Beacon Hill closer than it has ever been to legalizing Las Vegas-style gambling in Massachusetts, Vornado certainly gives a hoot about losing out on a potential gold mine in East Boston.

The Filene?s project is going nowhere fast without a deep-pocketed backer like Vornado, but new investors for Suffolk won?t be too hard to find if casinos are legalized this spring.

There?s a story circulating that Joseph O?Donnell, the concessions king and one of Boston?s most politically well-connected developers, interceded here and helped prompt Vornado/Roth?s rather remarkable apology.

If so, O?Donnell, also a key investor in Suffolk and a shrewd businessman who knows his local politics, clearly does not want to screw up a good thing.

Long-Armed Leverage

But when it comes to Menino and leverage, we are just scratching the surface here.

Boston may be a frustrating city in which to build, but Vornado has shown a keen interest in breaking into the market. I can?t imagine shareholders of the publicly traded REIT would be happy antagonizing Boston?s strongman mayor to the point where Vornado becomes a pariah on the Hub?s development scene.

And the long arm of Boston?s mayor extends far beyond West Roxbury, East Boston and Dorchester. Menino is also one the country?s best known urban mayors, having previously served as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Does Vornado really need a bitter Menino bad mouthing the company every time he gets together with other big city mayors at annual confabs?

That said, this certainly does not mean that Vornado does not have some pretty strong leverage of its own in its standoff with Boston?s mayor.

City Hall goofed big time when it gave the green light to Filene?s developers to start demolition in the first place, before financing was lined up. And so the mess in the heart of Downtown Crossing has created a big problem for Menino, to say the least.

And despite talk of eminent domain, it seems hard to believe that City Hall is about to shell out the $100 million or more needed to pay Vornado and other Filene?s project backers for seizing the site.

But thanks to his fit of braggadocio in his little chat with those aspiring Columbia architects, Vornado?s Roth squandered some of that leverage and turned the initiative back over to Menino.

Frankly, Roth?s gaffe is hard to understand, especially given the high-priced public relations help for which his company certainly pays New York?s Rubenstein and Assoc. a small fortune.

While they may be in the business of public relations, at least when it comes to Vornado, the folks at Rubenstein are best know for the quick brush off. Call about a development deal in Boston or problems with the Filene?s project, and the response has invariably been that their client does not comment on such matters.

In other words: ?They?re just too important to deal with all those pesky reporters and their silly, ant-like questions!? Brilliant. But where were these guys when Roth was beating his chest in front of a bunch of starry-eyed architecture students?

At the least, it shows a shocking misunderstanding of how quickly, in today?s wired world, a seemingly private talk can rocket into a major ? and embarrassing ? news story.

Maybe it?s time for Vornado and their media handlers at Rubenstein to spend more time talking to reporters, and less time explaining themselves to a ticked off mayor.
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Re: Filene's

ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT!
THE FACADE OF THAT PROJECT IS SIMPLY UNIQUE!
FIX THAT MESS!
 
Re: Filene's

"on bended knee". Scott Van Vhooris is such a joke.
 
Re: Filene's

Or, he could write boring editorials that no one would read. Because, pure facts and statements grab readers attention. That's why we all line up to read court papers and other legal-ese.....

I think Scott knows he's a joke, and is in on the gag. Why do you think everything is always soaring? It's his style.
 
Re: Filene's

^^ Sometimes, I'm not so sure.

Off topic:
Scott has a post up on the Globe's Real Estate blog about some dude who moved out to Houston and was surprised about the housing stock. Scott asked what it would take to get him to move back to Boston:
"For the record, I'd look at moving back if I could get an 1800 square foot house, less than 10 years old, on a 4,000 foot lot with attached garage within 30 minutes of the Fore River Bridge for $220,000 or less. Then I'd need a job, and I moved out for industry specific job opportunities, not housing. I was fine in the metrowest condo but have now gotten used to the single family house."
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Scott's reply? (emphasis mine):
Pretty reasonable request. But in Greater Boston, finding a house like that could be one tall order.
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Re: Filene's

AmericanFolkLegend said:
Weird request. Is the guy a troll who works under the bridge, or is he just a huge USS Salem fan?
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That caught my eye, too. I found it very weird. (Even weirder was that I was looking into the Fore River Bridge Replacement Project just before reading this thread)

Maybe he would work at one of the shipyards or oil receiving facilities. He said he moved out to Houston for his "industry specific job," whatever that's supposed to mean.
 
Re: Filene's

Hmm...

If you're a suburbanite, and assuming you have a relatively mobile job, how often do you need to visit or use Boston's amenities to justify the 400% housing premium you're paying?

At what point does it make economic sense for an occasional Boston-goer to buy comparable property in a flyover state near an airport with direct flights to Logan?

What does this have to do with Fliene's?
 
Re: Filene's

Shepard said:
Hmm...

If you're a suburbanite, and assuming you have a relatively mobile job, how often do you need to visit or use Boston's amenities to justify the 400% housing premium you're paying?

At what point does it make economic sense for an occasional Boston-goer to buy comparable property in a flyover state near an airport with direct flights to Logan?

What does this have to do with Fliene's?
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Cost of living is higher in Boston, but so are salaries.
 
Re: Filene's

^The difference in salaries is typically much, much less than the difference in housing costs.
 
Re: Filene's

Is that to imply that people in Houston have a much higher standard of living than people in Boston?
 
Re: Filene's

If you have comparable salaries, and live in comparable "Naticks" and rarely venture into the city, then it seems that a Houston Natick family would have a lot more money in their pocket than a Boston Natick family would, while in both cases they would have the same Cheesecake Factories and P.F. Chang's (and Houston Natick gets better weather too).
 
Re: Filene's

^^ In Texas you're either a stud/babe or your a fat ass. Boston has more of a range and any one who rides the T can tell you Boston's got plenty of hunnies.
 
Re: Filene's

Does anyone really believe Houston has better weather than Natick?
 
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