Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who is pushing to fill the hole in the ground that was once the Filene?s Department store, may raise his eyebrows at some recent remarks from the chairman of developer Vornado Realty Trust.
Vornado?s Stephen Roth implied Wednesday that the vacant lot?a gaping eyesore in the heart of the city?s historic shopping district ?may not be lying fallow because the developer lost its financing (as I reported last fall), but because it makes cold, hard business sense.
At a lecture at Columbia University Mr. Roth recounted how in the mid-90s he deliberately let the hulking Alexander?s department store sit vacant for more than three years, even though, as his mother put it, it was ?dirty? and there were ?bums sleeping in the sidewalks.? Mr. Roth ignored his mom and various appeals to build. Why?
?Why did I do nothing?? Mr. Roth said, according to an article on the lecture in The New York Observer. ?Because I was thinking in my own awkward way, that the more the building was a blight, the more the governments would want this to be redeveloped; the more help they would give us when the time came.
?And they did.? he said, drawing a laugh from the audience according to the article.
If Mr. Roth?s development partnership, which includes local builder Gale International, is pursuing this ?blight? strategy in Downtown Crossing it is sure to spark outrage among Boston residents and businesses who have been watching unhappily as the shopping district loses tourist traffic and retailers. Vornado did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The joint-partnership development also received financing from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Mack-Cali Realty Corp.
Mr. Roth also said Wednesday that the roughly 10-year delay between his acquisition of the Alexander?s site and when his company finished building the mixed-use skyscraper known as the Bloomberg building in 2004 was intentional and not a result of his indecision as newspapers reported at the time, according to the Observer article. ?Bullshit. I knew exactly what I wanted to do,? Mr. Roth reportedly said. ?I wanted the price to go up. A lot. And I was willing to wait because I had almost no basis in the land.?
If you needed further evidence that real estate developers have ice running through their veins, this is it.
In his January inauguration speech, Mr. Menino said restarting construction of the Filene?s site was one of his administration?s top priorities. Take note Mr. Mayor: if you want Mr. Roth to get his shovels back in the ground, you may need to play hardball.
