Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

Boston Globe
Names & Faces

If yesterday?s opening arguments are any indication, the divorce trial of former Bostonians Frank and Jamie McCourt could prove to be pretty contentious. At stake is the ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team Frank bought when his bid to buy the BoSox failed.

Jamie is seeking part-ownership of the team despite signing a document in 2004 that gave her the couple?s considerable real-estate holdings and Frank sole ownership of the Dodgers and the ballpark they play in.

Jamie has claimed she didn?t know what she was signing ? a claim Frank?s attorney, Steve Susman, yesterday characterized as ?incredible?? and ?unbelievable,?? according to USA Today. (There was a whole phalanx of high-priced lawyers in the courtroom: Frank has six attorneys and Jamie has five.)

At one point, while Jamie?s divorce lawyer, Dennis Wasser, was arguing that Frank and his legal eagle Larry Silverstein had altered the document signed by Jamie to deceive her, Wasser quoted, of all people, Sir Walter Scott: ?Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!??

This is not a jury trial. It is being heard by Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon, a former Santa Monica, Calif., policeman and a member of the prosecution team in the O.J. Simpson murder case.
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http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2010/08/31/sign_of_controversy/
 
5,000 residents would be something...but really a performing arts center? Unless it's the Palais Garnier....just build a movie theatre...it would be better served imo...

it's just weird how 'fine arts' are used by developers as bonus bait for approvals and how city halls bite...

Good to see this project coming to a head though...they did a good job adapting for the times...

http://www.boston.com/business/arti...r_spring_start_date/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed5
BRA poised to give a thumbs-up to bold Seaport Square project

The Boston Redevelopment Authority board tonight is expected to approve zoning for Seaport Square, a planned $3 billion project that would turn 23 acres of what is now mostly parking lots on the South Boston Waterfront into a new neighborhood.

The development team of Morgan Stanley, Gale International, and retail developer WS Development plans to break ground next spring for an apartment building and innovation center, the first phase of an ambitious 10-year building process.

The redevelopment authority staff, which has been reviewing the project and meeting with developers for three years, recommends approval.

?It is a bold and optimistic plan,?? said Kairos Shen, chief planner for the BRA. ?It needs to be in order to build the workforce and businesses that Boston needs to be competitive for the next 50 years.??

The project, which would have 6.3 million square feet of floor space, would be the largest single development in Boston?s history. It would include condominiums and apartments for about 5,000 residents, two hotels, restaurants, shops, office buildings, and research facilities, as well as a performing arts center, landscaped boulevard, church, and two public parks. Twenty new city blocks would be created in an area bounded by Northern Avenue, Seaport Boulevard, Congress Street, and Summer Street.

A spring groundbreaking could signal a reawakening for private development, which has been largely dormant in the city since credit markets froze amid the global financial crisis and ensuing recession.

The developers filed plans for Seaport Square in June 2008. The proposal underwent significant revisions early this year to conform with Mayor Thomas M. Menino?s vision for a South Boston Waterfront innovation district, which he unveiled in his inaugural address in January.

Menino wants the 1,000-acre waterfront to become a vibrant new neighborhood that will attract entrepreneurs and young professionals to live, work, and play. The mayor hopes to build a cluster of technology-based start-up businesses in the district.

?Seaport Square has embraced the challenge of the innovation district: to be bold, creative, and keep our economy growing,?? Menino said yesterday.

The developers have agreed to the city?s request to build an innovation center that can be used as both a business incubator and a venue for public meetings and lectures.

Although Boston Redevelopment Authority approval is the biggest hurdle for the developers, the project would still need approval from the city?s Zoning Commission, which is expected to consider it next month. State environmental approvals were issued last month.

To conform to Menino?s vision for an innovation district, the developers made changes to their original plans. More affordable-housing units were added, as was housing with attached work spaces that might be attractive to entrepreneurs.

The developers also have agreed to seek out retailers who are either new to the Boston market or who will offer new retail formats.

A former industrial and warehouse area, the South Boston Waterfront is largely undeveloped. The land where Seaport Square would be built was owned by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt Jr., who sold it to Rupert Murdoch?s News Corp. The current development team bought it in 2006.

John B. Hynes III, a principal in Gale International, has compared Seaport Place to the Back Bay, which was created on tidal flats of the Charles River in the mid-19th century. Hynes is the son of Boston television newscaster Jack Hynes and the grandson of the late John Hynes, who was Boston?s mayor in the 1950s.

WS Development, a Chestnut Hill firm, has built several successful lifestyle center malls in New England, including Dedham?s Legacy Place.

Seaport Square is the largest of several projects either planned or underway on the South Boston Waterfront. Two other important projects are Fan Pier ? Joseph Fallon?s planned $3 billion, nine-block project ? and Waterside Place, an apartment and retail complex.

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.
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It's really funny how the BRA gives HYNES a free pass for leaving a blown out hole in the heart of Downtown. Unbelievable. Would have loved to be the fly on the wall for the back room dealings on this development.
 
John B. Hynes III, a principal in Gale International, has compared Seaport Place to the Back Bay, which was created on tidal flats of the Charles River in the mid-19th century
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Apt comparison... if Back Bay's grid was all Boylston Streets, and tethered to downtown by Melnea Cass Blvd.
 
If they're really building 20 new blocks there's potential for smaller streets.

Of all the developments to take off at the Seaport, this is the one I'm banking the most hope on.
 
Good call CZSZ^
20 blocks in 23 acres is small by modern city standards. However, given that each block will probably be a single, monolithic building, my enthusiasm is tempered. Keeping my fingers crossed . . .
 
Seaport makeover to begin next year

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An artist?s rendering of Seaport Square.

BOSTON. The project is part of the city?s new Innovation District, an effort to attract start-ups to the waterfront.

?Together, we are creating a unique, diverse and entrepreneurial neighborhood that will help Boston attract and retain new industries and the city?s young, talented workforce,? Mayor Thomas Menino said, adding that the project will spur economic growth.

BOSTON
JUSTIN RICE
Published: September 23, 2010 2:17 a.m.
Last modified: September 23, 2010 2:21 a.m.

Construction on the city?s largest development in history will begin next year after gaining approval this week.

Seaport Square is a $3-billion, 6.3-million-square-foot project that will replace parking lots in South Boston?s waterfront with buildings, parks and boulevards. The project will fill a swath of real estate between the federal courthouse and the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

?Approval of the Seaport District is a giant step forward for our neighborhood,? said Jim Rooney, the executive director Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. ?Not only do we think this will spur further development in the area, but the jobs created here will be a key part of Boston and the Commonwealth?s future economic engine.?
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http://www.metro.us/boston/local/article/642830--seaport-makeover-to-begin-next-year
Also in today's copy of the Metro.
 
Boston development project could equal 20,000 jobsBy Anonymous
GateHouse News Service
Posted Sep 23, 2010 @ 05:00 AM
BOSTON ? The Boston Redevelopment Authority has given the green light to what could be one of the biggest developments in the city?s history.

The $3 billion Seaport Square project would transform a 23-acre section of the South Boston waterfront that, for the most part, consists of parking lots right now.

The Seaport Square project ? which would be built along Seaport Boulevard and Congress Street, among other roads ? would create 20 new city blocks with 22 new buildings containing a mix of residential, office, retail, hotel and cultural uses. Construction is scheduled to begin next year.

The residential component includes the creation of up to 2,500 condos and apartments, including 325 affordable units and 325 ?work force housing? units for middle-class residents.

The project is expected to generate as many as 20,000 permanent jobs, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and generate up to $35 million in property taxes for the city. However, the project could take as long as a decade to complete.

The development team behind Seaport Square includes Morgan Stanley, Boston Global Investors LLC and WS Development.

Mayor Thomas Menino?s administration is touting this area of South Boston as an ?innovation district? to attract and cater to small tech companies. The administration views Seaport Square as playing a critical role in that vision, with the pending construction next year of an ?innovation center? and a commitment to allocate 20 percent of the project?s commercial spaces to ?innovation space.?

Copyright 2010 The Patriot Ledger. Some rights reserved


http://www.patriotledger.com/business/x547096813/Boston-development-project-could-equal-20-000-jobs
 
I would love to see the numbers here? They are going to build all new housing when affordability to the consumer is at the lowest point in history. GOOD LUCK.
 
TheRifleman said:
I would love to see the numbers here? They are going to build all new housing when affordability to the consumer is at the lowest point in history. GOOD LUCK.
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My guess is they'll lead with rental. Multifamily occupancy and rents are doing fine.

Does anyone know how the development will address the grade change between Summer and Congress Streets (i.e., will there be a big artificial hill similar to what you see over areas of the Pike)?
 
TheRifleman said:
I would love to see the numbers here? They are going to build all new housing when affordability to the consumer is at the lowest point in history. GOOD LUCK.
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Folks, the Boston Globe article is a press release, nothing more, nothing less. It's shameful that the Globe does nothing to document what is actually being built -- instead writing about a 10-year vision that has little chance of ever being built.

Phase One of the Seaport Square project (the actual project moving forward with the approval) is a single megablock building next to One Marina Park Drive with one of the largest footprints in the Seaport District. It is an office building.

Phase One of the project also includes a 35 unit residential rental building, virtually invisible unless you are a seagull perched atop the Old Northern Avenue Bridge.

Phase One of the project also includes a new chapel to replace the existing Our Lady of Good Voyage.

The rest of the story, the remaining 2465 residential units is nothing more than a fantasy designed to make the BRA look good. The residential units are not on any schedule other than the fictional multi-decade long phasing that the BRA issues with every large project.

The reason there should be cynicism about the eventuality of the remaining residential units EVER being built out over decades to follow is that the developer can change the land use at any time in the future if market conditions do not support the development of residential housing. The BRA does nothing to REQUIRE significant housing to be phased along with the approvals for office and hotel -- and they never have.

With Convention Center's desired expansion and a strong advocacy effort by the business community for new office space and hotels, the residential piece of Seaport Square will never be developed. Never.
 
But we'll get the promised parking spaces. Given the way Boston operates, one would be forgiven for thinking that is all that matters in the end.
 
Mayor Thomas Menino?s administration is touting this area of South Boston as an ?innovation district? to attract and cater to small tech companies. The administration views Seaport Square as playing a critical role in that vision, with the pending construction next year of an ?innovation center? and a commitment to allocate 20 percent of the project?s commercial spaces to ?innovation space.?
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Who wants to venture a guess that approval was contingent on this 20% allocation, necessary to make the mayor look good after suddenly deciding the SBW should be an "innovation district"?

With Convention Center's desired expansion and a strong advocacy effort by the business community for new office space and hotels, the residential piece of Seaport Square will never be developed. Never.
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Infinitely depressing and probably true.
 
czsz, my thoughts exactly.

Also, I misread this in the above story to read:

Phase One of the project also includes a new chapel to replace the existing Our Lady of Gaga.
 
BTW, the renderings from August 2 in the Fan Pier thread are actually going to be the first residential building in the Seaport Square project, I believe. So, in wrong thread.
 
John, I just moved those posts into here. Thanks for the heads up.
 
JohnAKeith said:
czsz, my thoughts exactly.

Also, I misread this in the above story to read:

Phase One of the project also includes a new chapel to replace the existing Our Lady of Gaga.
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HA!

do you pray to a disco stick there? the poker face shroud?


make sure to say 3 "Papa-Paparazzi's" and 5 "Ra-Ra-Oh-La-La's" after confession.
 
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