News ONLY Columbus Center Thread

[BarbaricManchurian]

The Boston Globe weighs in today about the Columbus Center subsidies with their "Short Fuse" editorial.

Development: Enough with the subsidies

The proposed 35-story Columbus Center in the South End was supposed to set the future tone for air rights development above the Massachusetts Turnpike regarding height, mass, open space, and transportation links. Instead, the project is setting the tone for government giveaways. The Patrick administration has awarded $10 million to the Winn-Cassin development team to jump-start the project and may provide a $10 million loan to boot. Now the developer-friendly Menino administration wants to kick in tax-free Empowerment Zone bonds normally used to stimulate businesses in low-income neighborhoods. These subsidies are too deep. The developers already secured a favorable long-term leasing deal from the Pike for the air rights -- just $12.2 million. The Patrick administration says Columbus Center will generate hundreds of jobs. But so will the 75 other construction projects already underway in Boston. If this is the future of building on air rights in Boston, then developers should stay on the ground.

It's over a highway, no wonder it costs so much and they need a little money to start the project. This also has better public benefits then most other construction projects so a little subsidizing for the improvement of the community is something that I support.

 

[stellarfun]

DiMasi rips $10m grant for project
Speaker, Patrick at odds over Columbus Center

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | July 19, 2007

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi called on Governor Deval Patrick yesterday to rescind the administration's award of $10 million to the controversial Columbus Center project in Boston, calling the grant corporate welfare in a letter that reflects renewed tension between the two Democratic leaders.

In the letter, DiMasi and two other legislators who represent the neighborhoods around the massive proposed development called the administration's decision to give tax dollars to the increasingly expensive project a perfect example of why the Legislature has set aside funds for specific projects, rather than giving the governor discretion on spending.

"The $10 million comes from a fund the Legislature established last year to provide grants to stimulate the creation of badly needed manufacturing jobs," wrote DiMasi and Representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz. "We intended for the money to underwrite targeted investments by companies and governmental agencies to help the state's economy expand. We did not set the money aside to help a private developer build million- dollar condos."

The lawmakers contend that the developers of the project, which will connect the Back Bay and South End over the Massachusetts Turnpike, had repeatedly promised that they would not seek public funds to build the condo, hotel, and retail center, an assertion that the developers deny. The Legislature has rejected previous efforts to earmark money for the center, but set up a general economic stimulus pool that the administration recently tapped to award the Columbus Center grant and several others.

For more of the back and forth:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/19/dimasi_rips_10m_grant_for_project?mode=PF

 

[statler]

Winn Still Waiting For Columbus? Day
July 16, 2007
By Thomas Grillo,
Reporter

Developer of Controversial Project in South End Hopes $32.5 Million Bond Will Get Ball Rolling

More money. The developer of a controversial project to be built above the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston?s South End neighborhood is hoping a $32.5 million bond will get the long-delayed project under way.

The latest request in public support for Columbus Center comes as the project budget has reached $790 million, more than double the original cost when the mega-development was approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority in 2003.

But as the Boston Industrial Development Financing Authority (BIDFA) is set to approve the tax-free financing request, critics of the project are outraged by what they call Boston-based WinnDevelopment?s latest money grab.

?This is another form of public assistance and a complete waste of taxpayer money,? said state Rep. Martha M. Walz, whose Back Bay district abuts the project site. ?Roger Cassin said in public forums that he would not seek any public subsidy in exchange for the project?s height and density. But once the gavel was pounded for approval, he went on a wild spree for free money at taxpayer expense.?

Alan Eisner, a spokesman for Cassin, Winn?s managing partner, said public financing was never ruled out. ?I wasn?t there, but Mr. Cassin insists that he never said he would not seek public support and Roger is an honorable man.?

James G. Alexander, who served on the Citizens Advisory Committee, a panel appointed to advise Mayor Thomas M. Menino on the project, said Cassin never made an ?ironclad? promise not to seek taxpayer money.

?[Walz] is known to be thorough and precise and I do recall Roger said there did not seem to be a need to seek public financing,? Alexander said. ?But that was more than five years ago. Reasonable people could agree that when the project?s construction costs escalated, it seemed to be a good use of public money to turn the pollution-choked turnpike into a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.?

Still, there appears to be disagreement about how much public support Winn is seeking. Eisner said the total is $58.6 million: $20.6 million from MassHousing for the affordable units in the project, $15 million in federal New Market Tax Credits, a $10 million Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Jobs Program grant from Gov. Deval Patrick?s administration, $7 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a $4 million benefit from the BIDFA bond and a $2 million Community Development Action Grant Program grant.

Ned Flaherty, a project critic, said the public subsidies are closer to $500 million. In a report prepared for legislators and reporters, the Back Bay resident lists a $198 million discount for the air-rights parcel from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, $132 million in TIF financing and $58 million in federal tax waivers among the biggest items.

But a close examination of the data finds that Flaherty included loans as well as grants. A $4.3 million allocation request by Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, a Roxbury Democrat, defeated by the Legislature last year, also was included in the tally.

?Among the 14 different items we list, some are outright gifts while others are loans,? he said. ?My purpose is to show the amounts are big and to this point there has never been a government accounting of the cost of each of these favors.?

The BIDFA bond is available to Winn because earlier this year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development expanded Boston?s Empowerment Zone to include parcels above the turnpike. The city?s EZ is comprised of depressed areas of the city that need revitalization. Businesses that locate within the zone and create jobs can take advantage of tax credits and bonds. The money generated from Winn?s bond will be used to support construction of a 35-story luxury hotel and a 915-car parking garage that will offer more than 220 jobs.

?An Important Step?

Columbus Center is a 1.5 million-square-foot neighborhood to be built on four parcels including 7 acres above the turnpike bounded by Clarendon Street, Cahners Way and Columbus Avenue between the Back Bay and the South End.

While many Columbus Center foes attend hearings to oppose public funding for the project, reporters outnumbered residents at the sparsely attended BIDFA hearing last week. Francesco C. Tocci, deputy director for financial services in the Boston Redevelopment Authority?s Planning and Economic Development Office who chaired the brief session, said in more than a decade no one has ever attended a hearing at the agency.

?In 11 years, no one has ever showed up,? he said. ?Actually, one person did show once but it turned out he had come to the wrong meeting.?

BIDFA funds are below-market interest-rate bonds that are to be paid back in 20 to 30 years. The tax-exempt EZ bonds are issued to acquire land and build new facilities that promise job creation. The agency has dispensed more than $100 million in bonds including $50 million for the Fenway Community Health Center on Boylston Street and $43 million to support construction of the 175-room Hampton Inn & Suites in Roxbury. The borrower, not the city of Boston or the commonwealth of Massachusetts, is pledged to repay the bonds.

Thomas Miller, the BRA?s economic development director who has shepherded Columbus Center for years, said the BIDFA bond could be the final piece of the financial picture for the project.

?This is getting toward the end of the financing road,? he said. ?My position has been clear: I?m trying to get this project moving forward and this is an important step. Hopefully, we can get a shovel on the ground before summer?s end.?

Still, the project has had a number of stops and starts, in part, because construction costs have doubled and financing has been a challenge. The cost of the deck to be built over the turnpike has gone from $65 million to $145 million, according to Eisner.

While Winn hopes to commence construction commence shortly, Eisner could not rule out another application for public money.

?We have been putting our financing together with the city, state and private investors that will allow us to go into the ground this summer,? he said. ?We still don?t have all the money in place. But we are hopeful to begin because any more delays will increase the cost and we?ll end up with another gap.?

 

[palindrome]

A host of editorials from the sensationalist globe today.

Public subsidy, public disapproval

July 21, 2007

WHEN HOUSING and Economic Development Secretary Daniel O'Connell says that the proposed Columbus Center will "reconnect two important neighborhoods in Boston," whom is he kidding? There's no disconnect between our neighborhoods. Anyone on Clarendon Street who wants access to the South End just ambles across Columbus Avenue ("DiMasi rips $10m grant for project," Page A1, July 19).

Now picture the disruption resulting from a behemoth condo, hotel, and retail center hovering over this residential area. If "public support" means neighborhood reaction, we've already testified that this enormous development will divide our communities. It doesn't take an urban planner to visualize the ensuing chaos and alienation.

It's reassuring that Representatives Byron Rushing and Marty Walz and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi are listening to the folks who elected them.

JEAN GIBRAN
Boston

WE AGREE with the Globe's assessment regarding the discussion of public subsidies for the proposed Columbus Center: "If this is the future of building on air rights in Boston, then developers should stay on the ground" ("Development: Enough with the subsidies," Editorial, July 16).

Many of us feel the sting of bait and switch. The approved project exceeds the community design guidelines set forth in the 2000 Boston Redevelopment Authority publication "A Civic Vision for Turnpike Air Rights in Boston." It will result in a 35-story tower looming over the westernmost parcel. As the project has evolved, it has ballooned in square feet, and the affordable housing component has not been fully incorporated. Although the public record seems incomplete and the participants in the process were prevented from electronically recording the meetings, those who live in the affected neighborhoods were repeatedly told that height and mass were required to make the project economically viable and that the developers were using their own funds. Now we find that they want a huge public bailout. It is time to stop any consideration of public financing for this project. If it is too expensive for the developer, it should be scaled down to a project that fits "A Civic Vision."

JACKIE YESSIAN
Chairwoman
Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay Boston

RECENT REPORTING on the public subsidies given to Boston's proposed Columbus Center project have failed to mention what makes this project different from others in Massachusetts and uniquely ill-suited to public subsidy: The Turnpike Authority chose this developer without an open competition. Other than the developer, no one knows what the economics of this project are or whether this project is the best use of this real estate. The market never had the chance to operate, as it does through the bidding procedures otherwise required for the sale of public land in Massachusetts.

We do know that this developer has had an extraordinarily long time to try to make the proposal work. The market has determined that it does not.

MARK MERANTE
Boston
The writer is a member of the Columbus Center Citizens Advisory Committee.

REGARDING THE Columbus Center and similar proposals, does it really make sense in this age of security concerns to be building over open highways ?

ALLAN DUTTON
Jamaica Plain

With that said, is the columbus center actually 100% approved? Is there still a chance the Nimby's can win, besides the $10m?

 

[palindrome]

Towering hypocrisy over project

July 26, 2007

YOUR JULY 16 editorial ("Development: Enough with the subsidies") and chorus of July 21 letters ("Public subsidy, public disapproval") against state subsidy of the proposed Columbus Center project all ignore the fact that the project as approved requires public benefits such as parks, subsidized housing, and subsidized day care.

In most places it's the public and not private developers that must pay for those benefits.

Ironically, the same activists who complain about the lack of affordable housing don't want to see any housing built at all. Kudos to Governor Patrick for saying no to not-in-my-backyard types.

JOHN A. SHOPE
Boston

The writer is past president of the Bay Village Neighborhood Association.

 

[Mike]

Winn's folly
By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist | July 25, 2007


House Speaker Sal DiMasi got it exactly right last week when he asked: How many times are taxpayers going to pay for Arthur Winn's deck?

Boston is in the midst of the kind of building boom we haven't seen in more than a decade, and Winn is desperate to finally get a shovel in the ground on Columbus Center, his long-proposed mini-city across the Massachusetts Turnpike. The reluctant developer has a reported $40 million of his own money in the deal. Now, he says, it's our turn to give.

Winn's story -- if not his numbers -- is always the same: Blame the deck.

The man has sold the same story everywhere he has gone. He told the city and the community that he had to build far bigger than the zoning allowed to pay for the high cost of building over the turnpike. Then he used the same story with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to justify a below-market rent in negotiating a lease for the air rights. Now he is back for more, making a case for large, direct public subsidies after suggesting (at the least) that he had no plans to go that route. As DiMasi put it: How many times do we have to pay for one deck?

Winn, a Republican moneybags, spent four years making his case for subsidies in every corner of the Republican Romney administration. Here is what he heard -- repeatedly -- from the pro-business Romney people: Apply like any developer for the various housing and transportation programs, but there is going to be no special deal for Arthur Winn. Now Democrat Deval Patrick, champion of property tax relief for the little guy, is willing to write the kind of large check that Mitt Romney, our CEO governor, would not to build million-dollar condos and a luxury hotel.

Patrick has signed off on $10 million for infrastructure costs from a fund the Legislature authorized for economic development. This is on top of approximately $60 million in a variety of public financing sources, including loans, grants, and city bonds. DiMasi, an architect of that economic stimulus fund, is appropriately unhappy. The persistent Mr. Winn, as always, wants more still. (It was just two years ago Winn's pal, state Senator Dianne Wilkerson, slipped $4.3 million into the stimulus bill for the deck, which DiMasi killed. Now Winn wants $20 million.)

It's the deck, he says. The price of the deck, Winn says, has gone from $60 million to $160 million in six years. But an analysis completed for the Turnpike Authority in March 2006 as part of the lease negotiation put the premium of building over the turnpike far lower, $34 million. Another study in 2002 put the premium at about $21 million.

"Only $12 million of the $800 million project is direct grants," says Alan Eisner, a Winn spokesman. "The rest is low-interest loans that will have to be paid back. In return, the city is getting over $50 million in direct public benefits that were worked out with the community in 100 community meetings." (Public benefits, by the way, the public is now expected to fund.)

In the end, Winn made a bad bet. He lost valuable time trying to squeeze tens of millions out of the public sector. The real cost, however, was in time: While he hesitated, the cost of the project exploded from $300 million to $800 million, or so he says. Condo prices softened, and other developers leaped ahead of him in the market. This is what risk is all about.

Columbus Center would be a good project for the city, helping to knit together the South End and the Back Bay. But not if it does not make economic sense. It is not like there aren't plenty of others things that need doing. How much, just for starters, is replacing the crumbling Storrow Drive tunnel going to cost?

Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902.


Link

 

[statler]

State agency ignores own guidelines in condo loans
Awards $20m set aside for apartments

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | August 22, 2007

A state agency created to help foster affordable housing ignored its own guidelines by awarding more than $20 million in housing loans to the controversial Columbus Center development.

A spokesman for MassHousing, a quasi-public agency, acknowledged that the money for the low-interest loans will come out of funds specifically set aside for affordable rental apartments, not condos in a high-end complex such as those planned above the Massachusetts Turnpike between Back Bay and the South End.

"Columbus Center at this point is the one exception of a project that isn't rental and doesn't meet the guidelines," said Eric Gedstad, MassHousing's communication manager. "But it is still a worthy project, so we made a commitment to it."

The $700 million megadevelopment, which will span three city blocks, is one of 36 projects to get money from the $100 million "priority development fund" created by Governor Mitt Romney in 2004. MassHousing approved the Columbus Center loans last year, although they have not yet been paid out.

Governor Deval Patrick's administration came under fire recently when it awarded developers Arthur Winn and Roger Cassin a $10 million grant to construct a deck over the turnpike. Lawmakers and community activists said the developers had repeatedly said they would not seek public subsidies for the project, an assertion that Winn and Cassin deny. A request for an additional $10 million grant is still pending.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, who urged Patrick to rescind the $10 million grant, said the project should not receive MassHousing loans that were designated for another purpose.

"Funds set aside to encourage affordable rental housing should not be used to help subsidize multimillion-dollar condos," DiMasi said last week.

"If MassHousing cannot provide an adequate explanation for whether these funds were appropriately used, I would hope the auditor or inspector general investigates."

Representative Martha M. Walz of the Back Bay called the agency's decision to funnel rental housing money to Columbus Center "utterly bizarre."

"It's one more bizarre example of people trying to save what appears to be an unviable project," she said. "If it isn't viable, it shouldn't be built. Why are we throwing money at something the private market won't support?"

Not only was the fund designated for rental housing, but the agency had developed guidelines limiting loans to no more than $75,000 per unit.

In their initial loan application, the Columbus Center developers said that 44 units would be affordable, which would mean that they are receiving more than $450,000 per affordable unit, about six times the limit.

They have now increased the pledge to 75 units, which would translate into nearly $275,000 per unit. The complex is slated to have a total of 443 units.

MassHousing guidelines said exceptions to the $75,000 rule could be made in two situations: If the loans were to be repaid by developers quickly or there was a need to loan more money to meet "high priority public policy objectives."

But neither of the two loans approved by MassHousing in 2006 -- one for $15 million and another for $5.6 million -- is scheduled to be repaid quickly.

The larger one, which carries an interest rate of only 4 percent, does not have to be repaid for at least 30 years. The smaller loan has a 6 percent interest rate and must be paid back within 35 years.

The project also does not comply with MassHousing affordability guidelines, which require that at least 25 percent of all units in a project be affordable to households who earn no more than 80 percent of the Boston area's median income.

In its application, the Columbus developers said 22 of the 44 affordable units would qualify, or about 5 percent of the 443 units in the complex, while the other 22 would be affordable to those earning no more than 120 percent of the median income.

Alan Eisner, a spokesman for Winn Development, said the developers did not specifically request money from this fund, but said public assistance is critical if the project is to be built.

"We feel the low-interest loans are justified and necessary in light of the unprecedented public benefits of this project, which now total in excess of $50 million including transportation improvements, three new parks, and a new ground-water system," Eisner said. "With the housing market in turmoil nationwide, this project will provide a timely boost to the city of Boston."

Gedstad said that while the developers did not apply for money specifically from the priority development fund, the fund was the only one available to provide the gap financing the developers said they would need to pull together enough money to pay for the project.

The agency tapped the fund despite the guidelines, Gedstad said, because Columbus Center represents "a rare opportunity to transform the landscape of downtown Boston and most importantly because our mission is to provide some affordable condominiums in a neighborhood where there really is no such thing."

The $20.6 million in loans is not the only money Winn Development is in line to receive from the fund.

MassHousing also approved an additional $6 million in loans for two other Winn projects -- both apartment complexes.

Between the three developments, Winn Development will receive nearly a third of the $97 million that has already been committed to projects.

Link

 

[Mike]

Jobs ?R? Us center
Luxury developer sees 7,400-worker gold mine
Scott Van Voorhis
Friday, September 7, 2007

Columbus Center developers are pitching their $800 million project as a job creation machine as they seek millions of dollars in state grants.

But claims that his luxury condo and hotel complex, which would take shape on a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike a few blocks from the Hancock Tower, will create a jobs bonanza -more than 7,400 listed on one grant application - are raising eyebrows.

Few are disputing the hotel and condo highrise and its retail shops and restaurants will create a few hundred jobs, while construction of the project itself would producea couple thousand more.

But a detailed estimate of additional jobs the project would help create in the local economy after it opens is being attacked as ?nonsense? by Shirley Kressel, an outspoken activist and head of the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods. Those jobs, projected using an economic multiplier, include 5.6 jobs in newspaper publishing and 5.1 jobs in ?motor vehicle parts manufacturing.??Motor vehicle (parts) manufacturing?? asked an incredulous Kressell. ?Is there any human endeavor they left out of their job creation pallette??

The 5,000-plus new jobs claim was included in two applications for state economic development grant money sought on behalf of the Columbus Center team, which features prominent local developers Arther Winn and Roger Cassin. While the Columbus Center team was involved in both applications, they were submitted by Boston City Hall, which would administer the money.

?I would be very skeptical,? said Northeastern University economist Barry Bluestone.

The job estimates cover a broad range of fields, including more than 100 new jobs in real estate, 207.9 positions at local ?food and beverage stores,? as well as an additional 278.8 jobs in architecture and engineering.

?There is no way people living in 400 condos can support 278 architects,? said Ned Flaherty, a South End activist and project opponent.

Alan Eisner, a spokesman for the project, defended the estimates, noting they were produced by a Minnesota firm that routinely does this work for state and federal agenies around the country.

?The opponents are very shortsighted,? Eisner said. ?A project like this once and for all will connect these disjointed neighborhoods in a beautifully landscaped way and will be a showpiece for the neighborhood for many years to come.?


Link



The Herald now allows for people to comment on their articles ... check it out:

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1029859&format=commentsBy

 

[statler]

Columbus Center is set to build
State considers giving additional $10m to long-delayed project

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | October 5, 2007

Following a decade of planning and marathon battles over its pros and cons, the $800 million Columbus Center hotel and residential project will start construction next week above four blocks of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston, the developer said yesterday.

And despite criticism of the tens of millions of dollars of public funds already given to Columbus Center owner WinnDevelopment, two executives familiar with the project who asked not to be identified because the state has not yet disclosed the deal, said the administration of Governor Deval Patrick has agreed in principle to provide an additional $10 million in state aid.

The money would be in the form of a "contingency" loan, these executives said; WinnDevelopment would have to repay the state before it can realize any profit on the initial investment it has so far sunk into the project - around $40 million.

A spokeswoman for Dan O'Connell, secretary of Housing and Economic Development, said the state is still reviewing a request for the $10 million. "No final decision has been made on the Columbus Center project," said Kofi Jones, though one is expected soon.

Meanwhile, the Boston Redevelopment Authority yesterday sent out letters to neighborhood representatives informing them construction would go into high gear soon.

Preconstruction work has been going on for weeks, and a drilling machine, to install concrete piles that will support the buildings over the roadway, is scheduled to arrive Tuesday.

Affordable-housing developer Arthur Winn and partner Roger Cassin, WinnDevelopment's principals, this summer received a separate $10 million state grant, and pleaded that they needed another $10 million grant to kick the long-delayed project into construction.

Critics, including House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, object to a luxury hotel and residential project receiving public funding and have said Columbus Center should stand on its own.

The Legislature turned down Columbus Center's earlier request for $4.3 million in state economic stimulus funds, after project opponents argued that the developers had promised they would not seek any public funding. Boston officials, who have supported the project, say Winn and Cassin never made such a promise.

This week, Winn spoke of the long battle to get Columbus Center started.

"This took a lot of time and effort and a stupendous amount of capital. It's a watershed Turnpike project."

Asked about the continuing opposition and decade of delays, Winn said, "I like to think it's an improved project."

As currently planned, Columbus Center is a 1.45-million-square-foot, six-building complex that includes a 35-story hotel plus residential housing, retail space, parking, and public parks.

It has long been a target of neighborhood critics who argued that Columbus Center is too big and would be too disruptive to the Back Bay and South End, which it is designed to sew together over the highway that now divides them.

And, it almost died from rapidly rising construction costs - from a $300 million budget to the current $800 million - and a slowing residential market.

"It's great a project of this magnitude can be executed by a local developer," said Ronald Druker, a Boston developer who has known Winn for 30 years. "I'd say with great certainty someone from out of town wouldn't have shown the staying power and dedication to see something like this through."

WinnDevelopment is the managing partner, but with a minority financial position, in an ownership group that includes the California Public Employees Retirement System and MacFarlane Urban Realty Co. LLC, which invests in large urban projects nationwide.

Anglo-Irish Bank is providing a construction loan of more than $500 million to finance the project, which is expected to take three years to complete. The developers are negotiating with two companies for what Winn said would be a five-star hotel.

In total, Columbus Center will receive $27 million in grants and tax forgiveness, and at least $48.1 million in below-market-rate loans.

"They must feel comfortable they're going to get whatever financing they've lined up," said David Crowley, former president of the Ellis South End Neighborhood Association, where the project is located.

"The neighborhood would like to see it resolved - either move forward and build it or put it out to competitive bidding," said Crowley, whose organization worked with the developer to make changes such as adding park land.

Columbus Center will be built largely on a concrete deck over the Turnpike that developers say will cost about $140 million to build.

Columbus Center includes 450 condominium residences, with 44 to be sold at below market rates. The project is also paying the city enough for another 22 affordable housing units to be built elsewhere in Boston.

The project includes an estimated $60 million in public benefits, including the affordable housing, parks, and groundwater replenishment systems, and is expected to create 360 permanent jobs and bring at least $9 million annually in taxes.

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.

Link

 

[Chris]

Latest Courant--

Contractors Dig In to Columbus Center

Contractors working on the Columbus Center air rights project met with abutting residents for the first time last week, although preliminary work on the support structure for a deck over the Mass Pike began weeks ago.

The construction committee meetings were the first in a series meant to keep residents and business owners abreast of work on the three-and-a-half year project. A letter dated October 5 went to neighborhood associations outlining 30 days of pre-construction activity.

The meetings are called for in the Construction Management Plan (CMP) approved in 2006 for the residential complex and hotel that will span four blocks between Clarendon and Arlington streets.

Ned Flaherty, a longtime opponent and direct abutter of the project, said that he became acutely aware that work had begun on September 26, when he felt vibrations from drilling at his apartment. He has since sent a letter to the Boston Transportation Department (BTD), which oversees the CMP, outlining a list of 22 "broken promises" on the part of the developers in complying with the approved plan.

"Despite 12 years of planning, this project is already out of control," the letter states.

Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) spokesperson Jessica Shumaker said the notification procedures are being implemented now that construction is "ramping up."

"From our point of view, full construction has not yet begun," said Shumaker, who was also speaking on behalf of BTD.

In addition to the weekly meetings with the BRA-appointed six-member construction committee, which are to be open to all abutters according to the CMP, the developers will set up a website, post large-scale signs onsite with project and contractor information, and have quarterly meetings with the neighborhood associations, Shumaker said.

Roger Cassin, the head of the project's development team, described the work that has taken place so far as "preparing the site."

The early stages of work, much of which has been concentrated in a staging area off Stanhope Street, include test drilling in preparation for setting the piles that will serve as support columns for the deck. Crews will also be relocating fiber optic lines, work that will involve the partial closure of Pike lanes late at night.

The total projected construction time for the deck is two and a half years. Construction of the buildings on the deck will take at least another year.

According to the lease agreement with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the developers are liable for any damage to the Pike, and public infrastructure that results from construction, in addition to damage caused to nearby properties. The project has been insured for $500 million, a figure that only covers the first stages of construction, Cassin said.

The construction firm building the deck is J.F. White, which did repair work on the Big Dig tunnel following the collapse of ceiling panels last year.

John Shope, a Bay Village resident and member of the construction committee, said all those who spent years reviewing the project knew this time was coming. "it's a complicated project," he said. "We're all going to have to work together to minimize the inconvenience caused by a project on this scale"

Cassin, for his part, vowed that going forward the community would be well informed of what is happening at the construction site.

He also expressed relief that after years of acrimonious debate over teh pfoject, work was finally beginning. "I love any problem which involves being on the site and getting dirt on my shoes," he said.

 

[stellarfun]

Photo courtesy Boston Globe, August 25, 2006

The drilling site is the rose-tinted area north of the Mass Pike. Flaherty's place is off frame right, probably about an inch off frame (for scale) to the the right of the bridge and the train and subway tracks.

 

[Mike]

Re: Columbus Center

the Starts & Stops column in yesterday's Globe mentions several upcoming lane closures on the Mass Pike for the purpose of Columbus Center construction.

yup

Lanes on Interstate 90 (Massachusetts Turnpike) west near the Prudential Tunnel will close Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. during Columbus Center development construction. The lanes will be shifted and narrowed for about four months from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sundays through Fridays due to construction.

Link

 

[Batterymarch]

Re: Columbus Center

from Banker and Tradesman:


"No Grounds for Celebration?




Columbus Center, Boston


Construction has quietly begun on Columbus Center, the controversial $800 million mini-city to be built over the Massachusetts Turnpike where Boston?s Back Bay and South End neighborhoods meet.

But no one can figure out why Mayor Thomas M. Menino or Gov. Deval Patrick, he of the ?Together We Can? mantra, has not held a groundbreaking ceremony. ?There?s plenty of time for that later,? said one Boston Redevelopment Authority official. The BRA approved the mega-development in 2003 but financing the project has been daunting.

One Beacon Hill source told The Teller that officials are reluctant to hold a celebration, given that the project has so many critics who opposed public funding of the private development. House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has called millions in taxpayer money for the project ?corporate welfare.?

Columbus Center is a 1.3 million-square-foot mixed-use development to be built over 7 acres of air rights parcels. The project consists of 443 condominiums, a 162-room hotel, three parks and 39,400 square feet of retail space.

Gregory P. Bialecki, assistant secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, said the work at Columbus and Berkeley streets is considered ?preconstruction activity.?

But Bialecki, who also serves as the state?s permitting ombudsman, said the developer is awaiting approval for up to $20 million in Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion grant money. As required, the city of Boston and WinnDevelopment, the Boston-based project developer, completed the application.

?They have started some work driving test piles,? he said. ?But I remain convinced that finalizing the MORE grant and their arrangement [with] the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority are prerequisites for them to go forward all the way.?

Bialecki said his office is still awaiting supplemental evidence from the city of Boston of how ?the ownership structure of the deck and tunnel is being allocated between the developer, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the city of Boston, as well as proof that the project will create 7,000 jobs.?

Critics argue that Columbus Center is 100 percent privately owned, including the parks, streets and sidewalks. The Massachusetts Municipal Association, a nonprofit, nonpartisan association that provides advocacy to Massachusetts cities and towns, said MORE grants must be used for infrastructure improvements such as water-and-sewer connections, roadway enhancements and utility upgrades.

Bialecki said the turnpike deck would only be an elaborate foundation for buildings that may or may not qualify for the grant. ?But in fact, the deck and tunnel for Columbus Center will also create lots of useable surface area for streets, sidewalks, and public parks and plazas,? he said. "

 

[Mike]

Re: Columbus Center

State OK with project?s job estimates
By Scott Van Voorhis
Saturday, November 10, 2007


Critics have derided estimates suggesting the Columbus Center luxury condo and hotel project will generate more than 7,400 new jobs.

But state officials, after reviewing the claims in support of the developer?s request for up to $20 million in grant money, say they think the estimates are on target.

?We feel its a reasonable estimate,? said Kofi Jones, a spokeswoman for Dan O?Connell, secretary of Housing and Economic Development.

At issue are estimates the $800 million project, which would create a high-rise complex on a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike near the South End, would indirectly create more than 5,000 jobs through all the economic activity generated by new development.

A Herald review found the projections included jobs in some unlikely categories, including 5.6 positions in newspaper publishing, 5.1 jobs in ?motor vehicle parts manufacturing,? and 8.1 jobs in ?death care services.?

Critics of the project, backed by Hub developers Arthur Winn and Roger Cassin, have called into question the notion that a hotel condo complex catering to the wealthy would create such a vast array of jobs.

?Disappointed is too weak a word for $20 million dollars being given away,? said Ned Flaherty, a South End activist, who contends there?s no justification for such a subsidy. ?It seems like no one is checking anything.?

Still, Columbus Center?s bid for the state money has another hurdle to clear. Developers are huddling with the Massachusetts Turnpike officials to make some ?technical? modifications, project spokesman Alan Eisner confirmed.

At issue is legal language that some critics have interpreted as saying the Turnpike deck on which the project would take shape would be privately, not publicly, owned. ?The MORE (grant) dollars are awarded only to publicly-owned infrastructure,? Jones said.


Link

 

[ChunkyMonkey]

Re: Columbus Center

Hopefully just a hiccup...


State delays subsidies for condo complex
Columbus Center deal questioned

By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | November 14, 2007

Governor Deval Patrick's administration has delayed approval of a $20 million package of taxpayer-supported subsidies for the developers of the massive Columbus Center luxury condo complex after it discovered the project may not qualify for the funds.

The $10 million grant and a $10 million loan were to come from a pot of state money set aside by the Legislature last year to help developers upgrade publicly owned infrastructure, such as roads and water systems.

But the Columbus Center developers had planned to use the $20 million to build a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike that they would own themselves, according to the terms of their 99-year lease with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

Because the deck would not be owned by the state, the project does not qualify for the subsidies, said the spokeswoman for the Department of Housing and Economic Development.

"The state will not sign a contract . . . where the infrastructure is owned by anybody but the public," said Kofi Jones, spokeswoman for the department. Jones suggested the delays are a technical glitch and said grants to other private projects from the same fund have also been delayed.

The money would come from a $100 million program called Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Jobs Capital created by the Legislature last year.

The $800 million Columbus Center will consist of a 1.45-million-square foot, six-building complex, including a 35-story hotel towering above the turnpike. For years, opponents have argued that the project is too big for the neighborhoods it will join, the Back Bay and the South End.

Alan Eisner, spokesman for Columbus Center developers Arthur Winn and Roger Cassin, said lawyers will amend the 2,500-page air rights lease to transfer ownership of the deck, the tunnels, and all other infrastructure back to the state.

"We are currently working with the Turnpike Authority to ensure that the language in the lease conforms to the requirements of the grants," Eisner said. "We are confident that the technical language will be worked out in relatively short order."

In the meantime, preliminary work has begun at the site. "We're hopeful that by the time construction has proceeded to the point where we need the money, this technical language will have been worked out," Eisner said.

While Eisner suggested the problem is more technical than substantive, critics say ownership of the project's parks and the infrastructure has been the subject of fierce debate for years.

"I'm puzzled how the state did not understand that the infrastructure was to be privately owned," said state Representative Marty Walz , of the Back Bay. "Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the project has always understood that the infrastructure is planned to be privately owned. All you have to do is read the lease."

She called the state's lapse mysterious.

This summer, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi asked the administration to rescind the $10 million grant, calling it corporate welfare. The money in the jobs creation fund was set aside by the Legislature to expand the state's economy, not "to help a private developer build million-dollar condos," he said.

At the time Housing and Economic Development Secretary Daniel O'Connell called the award "a critical step toward groundbreaking for this long-delayed project that will reconnect two important neighborhoods in Boston and bring substantial construction and permanent jobs to the area."

The project has been championed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino and state Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a Roxbury Democrat.

Another state agency has already admitted bypassing its rules to give the project financial assistance. MassHousing, an agency whose mission is to promote the building of affordable housing, agreed to lend Columbus Center $21 million from a fund earmarked for affordable rental units only, not luxury condos. Last summer MassHousing officials defended the award, calling Columbus Center a worthy project and "a rare opportunity to transform the landscape of downtown Boston."

Source:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/14/state_delays_subsidies_for_condo_complex/

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Columbus Center

Turnpike may halt Columbus Center job
$800m project loses its biggest lender

By Andrea Estes and Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | December 13, 2007

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is threatening to stop construction of the $800 million Columbus Center project in Boston because the developer and its major lender have parted ways and the developer is unable to show it has the money to build the massive complex.

Turnpike officials have given developers Arthur Winn and Roger Cassin until next month to provide proof that they have the financing necessary to pay for the first phase of the development, construction of a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike at Columbus Avenue and Clarendon Street.

The bank lending more than $500 million toward construction costs, Dublin-based Anglo Irish Bank, is out of the deal and the developers are looking for another source of funds, according to several state officials who have been briefed on the matter.

It was unclear yesterday why the bank is no longer involved in the project. Bank officials did not return phone calls seeking comment from the Globe. The split has sent Winn and Cassin and their partners on a hunt for new construction financing at a time when credit for large projects is tight, a result of the nation's sub-prime lending crisis.

The Turnpike Authority, which signed an air-rights lease over the highway for the project, has written at least three letters to the developers warning them that it could order work halted because financing is not in place.

If the developers do not provide assurances by Jan. 15, "the Authority reserves the right to require the Tenants, upon written notice from the Authority, to immediately stop all work on the project," according to a Nov. 20 letter sent by the Authority's outside real estate counsel.

The developer did not notify the Turnpike Authority that it had split with Anglo Irish Bank until two weeks ago - after construction had begun, according to one state official.

Alan Eisner, a spokesman for Winn and Cassin's firm, WinnDevelopment, would not discuss the financing problem, which he sought to minimize.

"This is not unusual in a transaction of this magnitude," he said. "Whenever you have multiple parties to a major economic agreement, all of the parties reserve their rights until there is concurrence on all aspects of the capital structure."

As currently planned, the Columbus Center will be a 1.45 million square-foot, six-building complex that includes a 35-story hotel, luxury condominiums, stores, parking, and parks. It will span two city blocks and link the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods by bridging the canyon caused by the turnpike.

Over the years, its price has soared from $300 million to the current $800 million. The controversial project has, on several occasions, appeared doomed by rapidly rising construction costs and neighborhood opposition.

Construction finally began in mid-October. Yesterday, the edges of the turnpike where the deck will be anchored had been cordoned off and heavy machinery was moving earth and boring into the soil. Workers are installing conduits that will house relocated fiberoptic cables, removing concrete structures to make way for construction, and repainting lines on the highway so that traffic can be diverted during later construction.

Turnpike Authority spokesman Mac Daniel also was optimistic the developers will be able to provide the documentation the agency seeks.

"We have not been satisfied as of yet, but we remain hopeful that we will," he said.

Daniel said the Turnpike Authority would have several options if the developers were unable to come up with a satisfactory financing plan, including canceling the lease.

But he said the Authority would be inclined to continue extending deadlines in the hope that a new construction lender could be found, "given that we still support and want this project to move forward." One of the project's investors has said that there are several banks interested in financing the project, a state official said.

But it is unclear how easy it will be for the developers to find the money they need in the current tight lending climate.

"Any construction loan over $100 million is very difficult to get today," said John P. Fowler, executive managing director of the investment advisers Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP. "You've got to put a lot of banks together to get it done."

He declined to discuss Columbus Center specifically.
"Last year you would have had a lot more banks interested in doing loans of that size," Fowler said. But he said that was before the subprime credit crisis shook even the commercial lending markets. Today a bank would syndicate, or sell off to other lenders, more of a large loan. Last year, he said, "they would have kept larger pieces of it."

Lenders are also more conservative, and developers cannot borrow as much money on a given project. The percentage of a large project's cost that banks are willing to support has gone from about 75 percent before last summer, to 60 percent now, Fowler said.

WinnDevelopment's partner in the project is a joint venture between the California Public Employees' Retirement System and MacFarlane Urban Realty Co., a San Francisco real estate investment firm.

If they come up with a new financing plan, it could affect loans and grants they have been promised by state officials. As a condition of receiving a $10 million grant from the state's Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and at least $15 million in loans from MassHousing, the developers needed to provide details of their financing plan.

Officials of both agencies said yesterday that if the financial terms changed, they would review their commitments to the project. The state loans and grants have not yet been paid.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/12/13/turnpike_may_halt_columbus_center_job/

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Columbus Center

I always figured they had the money on hand to build the deck, else they wouldn't be going at the pace they are.

Turnpike gets a guarantee on deck plan

Developers promise Columbus Center work will be done

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | March 1, 2008


The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board has secured a $270 million guarantee from the developers of the Columbus Center project that they will see the expensive four-block deck over the highway to completion.


The guarantee clears another hurdle for the project, which has been 11 years in planning and development, encountered monumental opposition, and finally went into construction only late last year.


Columbus Center is a 1.45-million-square-foot, six-building complex that will include a hotel, condos, and retail establishments, as well as public parks and open space. It will extend from Clarendon to Tremont streets over what are now exposed traffic lanes.
The project has ballooned to $800 million, and a tentative financing agreement for a construction loan for the project did not materialize. Construction loans have become more difficult to obtain in the last year, and the guarantee ensures that - even if the full project is not completed - the authority will have a finished deck over the highway that could be developed in the future.


In addition to the guarantee, the Turnpike Authority amended its air-rights lease with the developers, WinnDevelopment and MacFarlane Urban Realty Co., to clarify the ownership and purpose of the deck on which the mixed-use project is being built on the edge of the Back Bay.


That clarification - stating the deck will be owned by the Turnpike, leased to the developers, and created in part to benefit the public - was necessary for the developers to use $10 million in jobs-creation grants from the state.
The money could not be used unless it had a public purpose.


The new agreement still has a few steps to go before it is final, including being signed by the governor.


WinnDevelopment's chief executive, Samuel Ross, said Winn and its partner MacFarlane, a San Francisco real estate adviser that represents the California Public Employees' Retirement System, would try over the next two months to secure the initial $10 million job grant and a separate loan from MassHousing for $15 million.


The grants are from the Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Jobs Capital, or MORE, program and are given to communities to help develop infrastructure and create jobs that benefit the public.


Mac Daniel, a Turnpike spokesman, confirmed the board approval of the lease amendment, saying the guarantee for deck completion "was very substantial for the Turnpike."


The Columbus Center project has drawn extensive criticism in its long development life, over the height of some of the buildings and the effects it would have on surrounding neighborhoods.


Recently, critics have faulted the administration of Governor Deval Patrick for providing the developer with public money to build what will be a privately owned project.
One of the most prominent critics is House Speaker Sal DiMasi, who had not yet seen the agreement, according to a spokesman.


"I can say that the speaker continues to have concerns about public subsidy for these kinds of luxury condo complexes, and that public financing for a project like this should not exist," said DiMasi spokesman David Guarino.


Guarino said DiMasi believes the MORE job grants that the Legislature authorized "were supposed to go for far different use. That continues to be his serious concern."


Ross, of WinnDevelopment, said the lease amendment resolves "any concerns anyone had about the appropriateness of MORE grants for the Columbus Center deck."
He called the commitment of the developers to guarantee the deck "quite extraordinary."


The agreement includes the expected cost of the concrete deck, $220 million, plus a $50 million contingency if costs rise.


Ross said the developers plan to obtain additional financing to construct the buildings planned for the deck, expected to be completed in about a year.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/03/01/turnpike_gets_a_guarantee_on_deck_plan/

 

[awood91]

Re: Columbus Center

I hate to be the one to post this but...

Columbus Center hits another snag

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr.
Globe Staff / March 22, 2008

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority has put on hold the air-rights lease it negotiated recently with the developers of the troubled Columbus Center project - yet another delay in a process that already has taken 11 years.

Although the authority did not specify why it halted the approval process late in the game, the move apparently resulted from uncertainty about the status of state funds that WinnDevelopment and its California partners in the project have counted on.

The developer has asked for the right to delay construction, and the lease would have to be renegotiated to allow that.

Columbus Center is an $800 million hotel, residential, retail, and parking garage project planned for a deck over the turnpike on four blocks, between Clarendon and Tremont streets at the border of the South End and the Back Bay.

The project is already in early stages of construction, even though a plan to provide construction financing fell through last year and no new lender has been found.

"Due to intervening circumstances, the authority is hereby withdrawing its submission," Turnpike Authority private counsel Michael S. Sophocles of Choate Hall & Steward LLP wrote Thursday to the Metropolitan Highway System Advisory Board, which was reviewing the lease that was agreed to just late last month.

While the review by the board and its staff at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council is something of a formality, the sudden withdrawal could cast serious doubt on the project.

The developer, WinnDevelopment of Boston, and its senior partner, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, need "additional clarification on how and when the state funding already earmarked for the project will kick in," said Alan Eisner, a spokesman for WinnDevelopment.

The California pension system invests in real estate but recently balked at a large project in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times, saying it had spent enough on certain types of real estate projects.

In general, financing large real estate projects has become extremely difficult since the subprime mortgage loan meltdown started last summer.

One of the major recent sources of concern about Columbus Center relates to $20 million in job-creation grants that the developers applied for, and an additional $15 million in MassHousing loans. The state approved $10 million of the jobs money but has not made a decision on the second $10 million.

Critics of the project argue that neither the job grant nor the housing money is appropriate for a project that has as its centerpiece a luxury hotel and condominiums.

The developers maintain they never pledged not to make use of public funds that are available, especially as the cost of the project has risen from about $350 million to $800 million since it was first proposed in 1997.

Turnpike officials said yesterday they have made no decision on allowing a delay.

One state official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak about turnpike matters, said the developer asked for a delay of up to a year and a half.

Negotiations over a construction delay could be complicated and prolonged, because the lease required milestones in the construction process and financial guarantees of $270 million that the deck over the turnpike roadway would be completed.

"We remain committed to making sure this development brings economic development and jobs benefits to the Commonwealth," said turnpike spokesman Mac Daniel. "We will not bring it to the board until we are confident it will accomplish the goals of both the turnpike and the state."

The turnpike board had approved the previously negotiated lease and sent it to the advisory board for review. It then would have gone to Governor Deval Patrick to be signed.

The Turnpike Authority has not yet acted on the revised lease.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/03/22/columbus_center_hits_another_snag/

 

[caravaggiste]

Re: Columbus Center

Construction on Columbus Center halted
by Linda Rodriguez
managing editor
Thursday Mar 27, 2008
The developers of the massive Columbus Center asked the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority for a "continuance on any further construction" last week, which, if granted, could stop construction on the luxury condominium project for up to 18 months.

"The developers of the Columbus Center recently asked for a continuance on any further construction, which the Turnpike Authority is currently considering," Mac Daniel, spokesman for the Turnpike Authority, said in an e-mailed statement. In a phone conversation, Daniel confirmed that asking for a continuance on construction did in fact mean a cessation of construction for a time.

"While we still kind of have hopes for the project," he said, "it looks like it?s being put on hold."

Because of the developers? request, the recently approved
amendments to the Turnpike Authority?s lease agreement with the developers were withdrawn from the consideration of the Metropolitan Highway System Advisory Board on March 20. The amendments to the lease were part of a lengthy negotiation between the Turnpike Authority and the developers; when they were approved by the Turnpike Authority Board on Feb. 19, it seemed that the massive project was finally getting off the ground. The Highway System Advisory Board was to conduct a 30-day review of the lease amendment, before sending it on to the Patrick administration for final approval.

The lease amendments included the deferment of the rent paid by the developers to the Turnpike Authority until the developers received a return on the project; a guarantee from the developers that the proposed four-block deck over the Turnpike would be built, at a projected cost of $220 million, with $50 million in reserve for potential increases in construction cost; and a $15 million Letter of Credit to be paid to the Turnpike should the developers default on that guarantee (See "Columbus Center Plot Thickens," March 6).

At the moment, said Daniel, "Until an agreement is worked out on this issue between both parties, there is no sense in bringing the proposal before the advisory board this week."
A spokesman for the developers said that they asked for the continuance because they are waiting on "clarification" regarding approximately $40 million in state grants and loans. Whether or not construction, which officially began last November, will continue depends on that clarification.

"We?re still trying to get clarification from the state on its portion of the funding of the project, so depending on what that clarification looks like, we will make that decision," said Alan Eisner, spokesman for Winn Developers, the company behind the project. Eisner characterized the funds as an "essential component of the capital structure needed to solidify the project?s finances"; the $270 million guarantee that the developers made to the Turnpike Authority does not include those funds, but is made up of money invested by one of their partners, MacFarlane.

The funds Eisner is referring to are the $20 million Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Jobs (better known as the MORE) grant and $20.6 million in loans from MassHousing. Though Eisner said the developer is depending on those funds, the MORE grant, which is designated for projects that benefit or improve publicly-owned infrastructure, in particular has not been guaranteed (see "Columbus Center Developers Are Counting on State Grant," March 20). Additionally, the grant doesn?t actually go to the developer, but rather is issued to the city of Boston, which can then reimburse the developers after the portion of the project involving public infrastructure is built.

As of this writing, the developers? application for the grant is still under consideration, according to a spokesperson with the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, which administers the grant.

According to a representative of MassHousing, there were two separate MassHousing loan commitments made, $15 million in February 2006 and another $5.6 million in December 2006, neither of which have closed as of yet. At the point that the developers come to MassHousing and confirm that they are ready to close on the loan, the agency will then conduct a standard review of the application before issuing the loans.

Asked if there was a possibility that the project would not be built, including the deck over the Turnpike, Eisner said, "We?re not saying that at this time. The only thing we?re saying right now is that we?ve asked for a continuance for up to 18 months and we are trying to get clarification from various state agencies on how and when state funds that were earmarked for the project will actually be available to be used."

At the moment, however, construction on the seven-acre site appears to be on hold. Over the last few days, the site has been eerily quiet - some of the heavy equipment has been cleared away and few workers are left.

The proposed complex stretches over seven acres of Turnpike air rights parcels and includes a 35-story high-end hotel, a complex of luxury apartments, and a 595-car parking garage. At this point, more than a decade after the project was first proposed, the total cost of construction has swollen from $300 million to $500 million and ultimately may cost as much as $800 million. The developers have asked for around $50 million in publicly subsidized financing, though when they had initially proposed the project, they promised it could be built without public assistance. As the cost of the project has ballooned, the public benefit to be reaped from it - the proposed parks and units of affordable housing - has remained relatively constant, at around $50 million.

link

 

[Mike]

Re: Columbus Center

Pike tower plan stalls
Builder seeks 18-month delay
By Scott Van Voorhis
Friday, March 28, 2008


An $800 million luxury hotel and condo tower slated to be built on a deck over the Massachusetts Turnpike has hit another snag, this one potentially fatal.

The developers of Columbus Center, which would cover an ugly highway canyon between the Back Bay and South End, have halted work and are requesting a break for as long as 18 months in construction.

The project?s financial backers, which include multibillion-dollar California pension CalPERS, were ready to push ahead with construction of the $220 million-plus air-rights deck over the highway, said spokesman Alan Eisner.

But for the project to move forward, the state has to offer a guarantee of its own that $35 million in promised loan and grant assistance will also be coming through, he said.

So far, that hasn?t happened, prompting the Columbus Center development team, headed by Hub housing mogul Arther Winn, to step back, Eisner said.

The delay is just the latest for Columbus Center, first proposed 11 years ago and subject to years of regulatory reviews, community meetings and intense debate.

?In any other city, this would have been built and occupied right now,? said David Begelfer, head of the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. ?It will end up being a gem for the city. I would like the government to step forward and make this happen.?

However, officials at the Massachusetts Turnpike have not yet decided whether to grant the 18-month moratorium.

If so, Alan LeBovidge, the Turnpike?s executive director, indicated it would require another round of negotiations and stipulations to keep the project on track.

?I don?t want to be 200 years old by the time this one goes up,? he said.

Others want Columbus Center developers put on a much shorter leash.

State Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) contends a three-month moratorium would be more appropriate. If the developers can?t get their financial house in order, the project should be put out to bid again, she argued.

?They have had the development rights for this for over 10 years,? Walz said. ?We need to be able to make a decision on whether they are going to be able to do this. We need to fish or cut bait on this project.?

Meanwhile, Patrick administration officials are not offering any guarantees yet on the $35 million the Columbus Center developers contend they need.

?No final decisions have been made on state funding,? said spokeswoman Kofi Jones.


Link


Marty Walz is right again. And I never thought I'd say that.