Re: South Boston Seaport
Name that new town
Some say Seaport; city calls it South Boston Waterfront
By Scott Van Voorhis / Herald Highlight
Monday, June 9, 2008
Development is booming along the waterfront by Fan Pier and the Moakley federal courthouse. But confusion reigns over the area?s name and even its brand identity.
City Hall is preparing to roll out dozens of signs for pedestrians and motorists across the fast-growing district stamped with its official name: South Boston Waterfront.
But even as city officials put up signs with the area?s government-sanctioned name, the ?Seaport? label - born during the 1990s as plans were being laid for the redevelopment of this key stretch of harborside - survives.
Outside South Boston and City Hall, business executives and tourists alike continue to refer to the area as the Seaport, said Patrick Moscaritolo, president of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau.
And for one top local branding expert, the popularity of the Seaport name is an opportunity to be seized. The debate comes with billions in new office, residential and retail moving forward after decades of planning.
?A brand identity is important for many reasons, and the number one reason is sales,? said Richard Krezwick, head of the Massachusetts Sports and Entertainment Commission and former chief of the new Garden. ?It needs to be sold to tourists, residents and potential businesses.?
The Seaport name has the cachet needed to provide the overarching identity for the eclectic district, which ranges from a giant convention hall to artists? cooperatives to planned waterfront condo towers.
Krezwick argues that ?South Boston Waterfront,? to outsiders anyway, conjures up images of Castle Island.
He sees the potential for a brand campaign by city and business leaders that would focus solely on the word Seaport, dropping even the word district from its name.
Still, within the Seaport, there would be further branding and naming opportunities within the area, what Krezwick uses the term ?micro-neighborhoods? to describe. There could be a microneighborhood around the convention center and a residentially focused one closer to the waterfront. The cruise terminal farther down the harborfront could have its own district, he added.
?The neighborhood needs a real identity,? Krezwick said. ?It can happen organically like the North End, or from a cohesive effort.?
Others on the waterfront are already capitalizing on the power of the Seaport name.
The Seaport Hotel, built in the ?90s, was one of the fledgling district?s first major establishments.
A few blocks away, developer John Hynes, grandson of one of Boston?s more well-regarded mayors, has unveiled plans for more than 6 million square feet of new development.
He has christened his multibillion-dollar neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood, which would have 5,000 residents and a school, Seaport Square.
?You can name things officially whatever you want; it?s what the public refers to it as? that really counts, argued David Begelfer, chief executive of the local chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. ?The branding is going to develop on its own anyway. I think basically you are going to see it referred to as the Seaport.?
However, the stubborn survival of the Seaport name comes despite a concerted effort by City Hall and South Boston elected officials to promote the area as the South Boston Waterfront.
Susan Elsbree, a spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, said the question of what to name the district, in the city?s view, was settled years ago.
When city officials promote the area to businesses around the country, everyone, from Mayor Thomas M. Menino on down, refers to the area as the South Boston Waterfront. It is the name used in the city?s marketing materials as well. Other stakeholders, such as the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, are also using the official name.
?We are constantly marketing the South Boston waterfront as the city?s next frontier, but we are marketing it as the South Boston Waterfront,? Elsbree said.
But the dueling names may actually mirror competing visions for both the waterfront?s brand identity and its future.
Developers tout the variety of projects they have planned, part of the mixed-use school of development. That means a mix of everything, from schools and cultural institutions to parks and marinas, office high-rises and posh condo projects.
But to state Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston), the name South Boston Waterfront means what is suggests, that the area is an extension of the larger South Boston neighborhood. He said he is pushing to give South Boston shops a chance to open up in some of these new buildings, as well as securing jobs for neighborhood residents.
?We have to make sure it?s an extension of South Boston,? Wallace said. ?We can?t have a tale of two cities, one starting north of Summer Street and the other starting south of Summer Street. We have to put our own identity on it.?
Not everyone, though, believes what this crucial stretch of waterfront is called is all that important.
Seaport or no Seaport, the area is fast taking on an identity of its own as a cutting-edge area of chrome, steel and glass buildings and fashionable restaurants, said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association.
She ticks off a long list of restaurateurs taking a chance on the waterfront, from No. 9?s Barbara Lynch to Legal Sea Foods? Roger Berkowitz.
?It is becoming the edgy part of the city,? Li said. ?It?s Boston of the 21st century.?
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