Winthrop Center | 115 Winthrop Square | Financial District

Equilibria said:
And the board isn't just worried about appearance. They need to swallow $20M less for affordable housing that blows a hole in financing a different project.
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Sucks... but a lot better than the alternative hole in the ground.
 
BPDA unanimously approves the project change. I will say - listening to the stream - Joe Larkin didn't give me the "warm and fuzzies" about the prospect of this iteration going forward. A lot of use of the term "cautiously optimistic." Hoping to close on funding in the next 60 days with a mid-September restart. (Site was also confirmed to be shut down).

I would have felt better if MP indicated they had a committment to finance provided this change was approved.
 
Reminder that 290 tremont is the affordable housing project that was being financed from the sale of the site to mp.
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This is an important project. That being said mp can only do what it can do right now its really unfortunate timing.
 
Could somebody please explain in economic terms why Winthrop Building cannot be built especially if Mass has a housing shortage?
Why not convert the entire tower into housing. Forget commercial.

There is a demand for affordability. Why is this not being a address in Boston?
 
Johnnyrocket891 said:
Could somebody please explain in economic terms why Winthrop Building cannot be built especially if Mass has a housing shortage?
Why not convert the entire tower into housing. Forget commercial.

There is a demand for affordability. Why is this not being a address in Boston?
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You can't spend $1,000/SF to build affordable housing.
 
The objective of a large real estate development company is to make money, not to provide affordable housing. MP saw a profit machine in downtown and subsequently bid a high price to ensure they be the ones to make the profit.

You can debate the ethics of a real estate development company elsewhere. The key here is that MP alone can not suddenly solve the housing affordability crisis, and a company who's goal is to still exist tomorrow will not have a change of heart overnight. It's a complicated matrix between lead developers, financial analysts, banks and lenders, policy makers, city officials and boards, neighborhood groups, architects, designers, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, construction managers, project managers, lawyers, etc.
 
Johnnyrocket891 said:
Then wouldn't that mean they might have overpaid for the parking garage?
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This is a roughly $1.1 billion project, of which the garage and ensuing payments come out to about $130 million. They could reduce the cost of the garage 95 percent and you would still need to charge thousands of dollars a month in rent just to break even in a reasonable amount of time.
 
stefal said:
The objective of a large real estate development company is to make money, not to provide affordable housing. MP saw a profit machine in downtown and subsequently bid a high price to ensure they be the ones to make the profit.

You can debate the ethics of a real estate development company elsewhere. The key here is that MP alone can not suddenly solve the housing affordability crisis, and a company who's goal is to still exist tomorrow will not have a change of heart overnight. It's a complicated matrix between lead developers, financial analysts, banks and lenders, policy makers, city officials and boards, neighborhood groups, architects, designers, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, construction managers, project managers, lawyers, etc.
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Precisely. The best, absolutely fool proof way to make developers build affordable housing is to make it profitable. The best case scenario would be if affordable housing had the highest returnn on investment. Thats the answer right there. The housing problem would be solved in 5 years.

This is possible. If they can turn housing into an assembly line built product that is then shipped to the site and is very easy and low skilled to install, it could happen. Make it so theres as few pieces as possible, and create like 10 different models that have enormous parts commonality between them. Technology today could make modular housing much much better.

The soviets already did this with their kruschevka 5 story buildings. They had I believe 25 individual pieces that were built off site and shipped. Clearly the affordable housing planning was terrible then in the ussr with the copy paste high rise sprawl method as well in the us with the projects, but today theres tons of successful examples and thats the mixed income model along with integrating into the existing fabric and spreading around the buildings throughout a neighborhood instead of clustering.
 
stoweker said:
like $200/sf for just construction costs, excluding land and soft costs for like garden style suburban apartments. high rise construction for affordable housing are going to be the same $1K+/sf (which i think is low...)
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The City of Boston says the minimum they can build affordable housing for within the City, using City guidelines (like union labor) is $400/sq ft. Often it is $500/sq. ft. depending on the site.
 
I believe MP has alot of Govt & state options to make this work.
#1 PPP loan
#2 billion dollar 0% interest rate loan from the Govt (hopefully the rates could go negative)
#3 100 year tax abatement .
#4 Section 8 The building (Guarantee rents at market rates)

That would most likely make the project profitable and help create jobs.

I'm curious what they did with all their profits from Millennium towers
 
The fourth tallest skyscraper in the city of Boston is never going to be affordable housing for so many reasons -- it's not random chance that literally only one person, here or anywhere, thinks that's a possible outcome for this project. May as well speculate that Winthrop will be converted to use as the world's tallest potato farm or day-care center.
 
chrisbrat said:
The fourth tallest skyscraper in the city of Boston is never going to be affordable housing for so many reasons -- it's not random chance that literally only one person, here or anywhere, thinks that's a possible outcome for this project. May as well speculate that Winthrop will be converted to use as the world's tallest potato farm or day-care center.
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What’s the tallest an affordable building can be?
 
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