Boston Development
Aug. 7th, 2011 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutWhat's happening in the center of the city is peripheral (ha!) to my thesis, however I want to point to a couple things.
http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/current_construction_projects/
Many of these "current" projects have not broken ground (as near as I can tell, anyway) and I'm not even sure financing has been nailed down for many -- but the Globe doesn't seem to consistently mention financial and other partners when present so an absence of mention is not evidence of absence.
_Exactly_ as in Seattle, many of these projects were all ready to go a few years ago when the markets froze solid and we all collectively freaked out; it's taken this long for credit to be available to proceed on development. So you would sort of expect these projects to be fantastically non-controversial by this point: people presumably would like the jobs and equally would have already engaged in oppositional activities years ago.
Not so.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=597798
From this snapshot of a 2008 Globe article, we see that the proposed residential tower to go on top of Copley Place Mall (owned by Simon) was intended in the original development in the 1980s (<-- yes, thirty years ago, when even I was quite young, and when "Massachusetts Miracle" was a new and exciting term -- altho worth noting that in the same time frame, people knew _exactly_ what the Combat Zone was because it was still there).
"While many aspects of the project must be vetted with the community and approved by the city, a building at Stuart and Dartmouth streets was contemplated as part of the master plan for Copley Place when it was first built."
You can tell you're in Boston when you read this:
http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/current_construction_projects?pg=5
"Two lawmakers are accusing Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Governor Deval Patrick of steamrolling the project through the public review process."
about something that's been contemplated in some form for thirty years. Hey, maybe it _was_ steam rolled.
R. asked whether Simon had any similar developments elsewhere.
Yes: Coconut Point in Estero, FL (shopping + condos, etc.) and The Domain in Austin, TX (shopping + apartments, etc.
So what is it with malls and condos/apartments? That will be the subject of the next post. Probably.
http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/current_construction_projects/
Many of these "current" projects have not broken ground (as near as I can tell, anyway) and I'm not even sure financing has been nailed down for many -- but the Globe doesn't seem to consistently mention financial and other partners when present so an absence of mention is not evidence of absence.
_Exactly_ as in Seattle, many of these projects were all ready to go a few years ago when the markets froze solid and we all collectively freaked out; it's taken this long for credit to be available to proceed on development. So you would sort of expect these projects to be fantastically non-controversial by this point: people presumably would like the jobs and equally would have already engaged in oppositional activities years ago.
Not so.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=597798
From this snapshot of a 2008 Globe article, we see that the proposed residential tower to go on top of Copley Place Mall (owned by Simon) was intended in the original development in the 1980s (<-- yes, thirty years ago, when even I was quite young, and when "Massachusetts Miracle" was a new and exciting term -- altho worth noting that in the same time frame, people knew _exactly_ what the Combat Zone was because it was still there).
"While many aspects of the project must be vetted with the community and approved by the city, a building at Stuart and Dartmouth streets was contemplated as part of the master plan for Copley Place when it was first built."
You can tell you're in Boston when you read this:
http://www.boston.com/realestate/gallery/current_construction_projects?pg=5
"Two lawmakers are accusing Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Governor Deval Patrick of steamrolling the project through the public review process."
about something that's been contemplated in some form for thirty years. Hey, maybe it _was_ steam rolled.
R. asked whether Simon had any similar developments elsewhere.
Yes: Coconut Point in Estero, FL (shopping + condos, etc.) and The Domain in Austin, TX (shopping + apartments, etc.
So what is it with malls and condos/apartments? That will be the subject of the next post. Probably.