Seaport Square (Formerly McCourt Seaport Parcels)

Menino: Developers will replace AvalonBay at Seaport Square
Boston Business Journal by Thomas Grillo, Real Estate Editor
Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 1:30pm EDT

Mayor Thomas M. Menino says he confident a new developer will emerge to replace AvalonBay at Seaport Square.

One day after the Boston Business Journal reported AvalonBay Communities (NYSE: AVB) wants to drop plans for two residential towers in the Hub’s emerging Seaport District, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he’s confident a replacement developer will emerge.

“The whole South Boston waterfront is an area developers want to invest in,” Menino said. “We’ll find other folks who see the potential in Seaport Square.”

AvalonBay, the Arlington, Va.-based real estate investment trust with offices in Boston, had a partnership that includes developer John Hynes’ Boston Global Investors, Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley


Follow this company (NYSE: MS) and WS Development to construct 750 apartments and four stories of retail across from the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse. But all bets are off now and several sources say Avalon wants out .

Jonathan Davis, CEO and founder of the Davis Cos., a Boston company with a track record of commercial, residential, retail, office, medical and mixed-use projects, said getting a new development team at Seaport Square is a matter of timing. “The Seaport area is hot and it will get hotter,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

Seaport Square, a proposed 23-acre mixed-use sustainable neighborhood, would contain 6.3 million square feet of residential, retail, office, hotel, innovation, civic and cultural uses. Earlier this year, construction began on the Boston Innovation Center that will allow for small firms to generate ideas and mingle with larger companies that have the access to capital and the ability to grow those ideas
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Don't worry Millennium Partners will probably be giving tax breaks to take over for Avalon which they are starting to realize that it costs too much to build to justify the rents.

Hynes must be one of the Mayor's white envelope buddies to be considered to get the greenlight for the Seaport area. Seriously this guy ruined DTX but now the BRA approves him the Seaport district to develop.

At this point I would not let Hynes develop anything of real substance after leaving a hole in the heart of the city of Boston. Nothing good came from that situation.

#1 Filenes basement bankrupt-Gone
#2 Shopping district of Boston Downtown is Gone
#3 BID got implemented
#4 Would not be caught down this area after 8PM
 
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You understand him getting approvals for Filene's and Seaport happened around the same time, and both times with a developer with deep poskets backing him, or at least financiers with deep pockets. Voronado and Morgan Stanley?

He did not make and leave a hole for 4 years and then win approval for a separate not related area.
 
I'm also not sure what is wrong with the area after 8pm. I'm assuming DTX.
Right now it's bright daylight at 8, and afterwards, I have never felt the least bit nervous about those surroundings. It's much later than 8 usually when I find my way to Foley's.
 
^ I also find myself in Downtown Crossing all the time after dark and I never feel unsafe. Apparently the media has successfully scared off people who don't actually venture to that area very often anyway.
 
I perfectly happy to have the media keep saying DTX and the Financial District are ghost towns. It's hard enough to get a table for dinner or a seat at a bar as is.
 
^ Not that they're ghost towns, that they're unsafe and to be avoided.
 
^^I don't think Riff makes it out of Belmont much so leave the poor guy alone. It's too bad he has a thing against John Hynes - after all, it was VNO who pulled the plug, and John is building the new park and innovation thing at Seaport Square, which can't be cheap, especially before he's started any actual buildings to pay off the costs of those public amenities....
 
greenwayguy1982 said:
^^I don't think Riff makes it out of Belmont much so leave the poor guy alone. It's too bad he has a thing against John Hynes - after all, it was VNO who pulled the plug, and John is building the new park and innovation thing at Seaport Square, which can't be cheap, especially before he's started any actual buildings to pay off the costs of those public amenities....
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I usually stay away from DTX, but not because I feel scared...I feel enraged that that damn hole is still there!
 
AmericanFolkLegend said:
I like that Rifle is now blaming Hynes for a BID getting implemented too.
For the 100th time - local property owners vote on BIDs. They're not imposed by the Ministry of Plenty.
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How can we continue to take from the successful businesses that have been dealing with the hole in the ground in the Downtown area in programs like BID. Then issue tax breaks for Fan Pier, State street, JPM and the rest of the Seaport Tax break haven. Instead of the Innovation District the rebranding for Seaport is the Taxpayers District.


Maybe because all the Mayors friends have been buying developments in this area and they paid too much for the Land. Now the taxpayers are bailing them out.



greenwayguy1982 said:
^^I don't think Riff makes it out of Belmont much so leave the poor guy alone. It's too bad he has a thing against John Hynes - after all, it was VNO who pulled the plug, and John is building the new park and innovation thing at Seaport Square, which can't be cheap, especially before he's started any actual buildings to pay off the costs of those public amenities....
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Some people might think Hynes & the BRA did a good job with the DTX district like yourself.

I'm very disappointed with DTX and how its turned out.

So who should I blame Greenwayguy for the hole in DTX and the lack of momentum for new innovation in this area for the last 4 years? The Bloggers like myself?
 
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^Riff, which of the mayor's friends bought land in the Innovation District and are now getting a tax break? State Street - developer is from Providence. JP Morgan? Vertex from Cambridge? (and no - Fallon didn't get the TIF, Vertex did).

You should blame Vornado for the hole in DTX...they owned it, right?
 
TheRifleman said:
#4 Would not be caught down this area after 8PM
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You chose poor wording here. It's not about being "caught" in the area. It's really not that dangerous at 8, or 9, or 10, or even a little after that. I have walked through alone plenty of times and never felt threatened. It's more that there's just no real reason to be there, other than the scattered bar or theater.
 
greenwayguy1982 said:
^ (and no - Fallon didn't get the TIF, Vertex did).

You should blame Vornado for the hole in DTX...they owned it, right?
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Fallon is a private developer who bought Fan Pier project. You can spin it whatever way you want. Fallon got the bailout. He bought the project and could never entice a tenant on his own. So the Mayor and Governor sweeten the deal by promoting 70 million dollars in taxpayers relocation fund on this project. Now the way I see it he makes a pretty good score building BOX building then dumping it and adding no real value for the taxpayers on one of the most important development parcels in the city that could have made a statement.

What value did the politicans add on this development?
70 million in taxpayers funds to relocate a company that was positioned in Cambridge Ma.

The real truth to what is going on is Obama, Deval Patrick & the democrats are trying to hold onto this state at all costs. They have dumped a fortune in taxpayers money in the Innovation district and will continue to promote job growth in mass. Like the Casino deal. Its one giant scam on the taxpayers and the private industry


DZH22 said:
You chose poor wording here. It's not about being "caught" in the area. It's really not that dangerous at 8, or 9, or 10, or even a little after that. I have walked through alone plenty of times and never felt threatened. It's more that there's just no real reason to be there, other than the scattered bar or theater.
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There are alot of Junkies roaming around in the area. I would stay away.......It might not be as dangerous as I write in my blogs. But when their are drug addicts roaming the area without jobs mooching for money nothing good can come from people that are in desperation mode late at night.


I will give the Mayor & the city credit for doing their best for keeping DTX somewhat clean (trash pickup is consistent)
 
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TheRifleman said:
There are alot of Junkies roaming around in the area. I would stay away.......It might not be as dangerous as I write in my blogs. But when their are drug addicts roaming the area without jobs mooching for money nothing good can come from people that are in desperation mode late at night.
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Three word solution: "Browning High Power".
 
I don't know why the taxpayers of Massachusetts should subsidize the cost of attending a community college to the amount of $6,500-7,000 per student per 30 credit hour academic year.
 
I'm pretty sure that trash pickup is paid for by the BID you detest.

Also, please stop equating TIFs with taxpayers funds. I've explained the difference before and the comparison is both wrong and misleading.
 
stellarfun said:
I don't know why the taxpayers of Massachusetts should subsidize the cost of attending a community college to the amount of $6,500-7,000 per student per 30 credit hour academic year.
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Tee hee hee!

The "No Government!!!" argument works best when it hurts someone else...
 
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greenwayguy1982 said:
^^I don't think Riff makes it out of Belmont much so leave the poor guy alone. It's too bad he has a thing against John Hynes - after all, it was VNO who pulled the plug, and John is building the new park and innovation thing at Seaport Square, which can't be cheap, especially before he's started any actual buildings to pay off the costs of those public amenities....
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John is invoved in the "innovation thing", but the city is paying to have it built....
The park is the horse in front of the cart. You are right about the oddness of building amenities before anyone is there to use them or demand them.
 
TheRifleman said:
The real truth to what is going on is Obama, Deval Patrick & the democrats are trying to hold onto this state at all costs. They have dumped a fortune in taxpayers money in the Innovation district and will continue to promote job growth in mass. Like the Casino deal. Its one giant scam on the taxpayers and the private industry
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6% unemployment rate in MA.

I don't agree on the casino deal either.
 
^^Seamus, the city isn't paying to have the innovation thing built - they're leasing it from John Hynes for $1.00 a year and not putting in any capital dollars. I think it's costing Seaport Square about $6 million. No public money involved.
 
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