archBOSTON ARCHIVE

statler · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 825

Neighbors angry over Fort Point
Activists say city holding private talks with developers, breaking vows on consistency and transparency in zoning
By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | June 15, 2005

City of Boston officials have angered neighborhood groups in the emerging Fort Point Channel area near Gillette Co. by negotiating behind closed doors with four major developers on the size, height, and density of the big projects they want to build, and the makeup of the neighborhood surrounding them.

The negotiations -- with Gillette, Boston Wharf Co., the US Postal Service, and Beacon Capital Partners LLC -- run contrary to promises the city made five years ago to establish and abide by consistent zoning rules that allow public participation, community activists say.

''The community didn't have the opportunity to weigh in or comment," said Shirley Kressel, an urban planner and consistent critic of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which is striking an agreement with the companies on the broad shape of the 90-acre area.

''This is private zoning," she said. ''They arrange the character of the project, and they negotiate it out, and the community doesn't know any of that."

This kind of fight has played out before, most recently with the Residences at Kensington Place, in Chinatown.

By negotiating privately, city officials argue, they can wrest more goodies like parks and roads from developers, in exchange for allowing bigger, taller buildings. Neighborhood groups say the process allows developers to get way too much at the expense of people who already live in the area.

''It's just another way for them to avoid the public process," said Becky Dwyer, an artist who lives on A Street, the heart of the Fort Point area.

In Boston lingo, the city is using a ''planned development area" process, which allows the BRA more flexibility on matters like building heights when it negotiates with a developer.

There's a twist, though. In the Fort Point area, the city for the first time has proposed multiple planned development areas, plus an initial ''master plan" that lays the groundwork for them. The agreements with land owners secured in recent talks will be guaranteed through that master plan, providing enormous public benefits that regular zoning would not, said Kairos Shen, director of planning for the BRA.

City officials add that it's not a done deal. The master plan has yet to be approved by the Boston Zoning Commission, and that's when the public will get to comment.

Shen said that developers originally wanted to build out 8 million square feet in the area, but the city agreed to only six million. In exchange for a first phase of 4 million, and 2 million later, the city secured several acres of parks, millions of dollars in street improvements, and $1 million a year for maintenance of public spaces.

''They called them secret meetings -- we called them working with four major landowners and getting them to agree to things that are not necessarily in their best interest," said Susan Elsbree, a BRA spokeswoman.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday defended the agreement. One part of the deal, he said, was that the city won commitments from Gillette and the Postal Service to remain in the city with their thousands of employees.

Menino also said the process will finally get projects moving. ''The next phase after the agreement is to start the buildout," he said.

Menino said the city has listened to the community, which wanted more open space, and will provide 8.4 acres of parks, or about a quarter of the vacant areas remaining. He said the public review will continue.

''They will have a say in what goes on down there," Menino said, as each individual project is proposed in detail.

The maximum height the city tentatively negotiated with the developers is 200 feet. Asked whether any exceptions will be made, Menino initially said no. But then he added: ''If they want to go higher they'll have to pay a premium, but the premium is very extreme."

The city's pledge to set up zoning dates back to February 1999, when it was developing a vision for the South Boston Waterfront, with a lot of public input. Called the Seaport Public Realm Plan, it said, ''Once the land use and dimensional recommendations of this plan have been thoroughly reviewed by the public, a zoning amendment will be drafted."

Instead, it became clear over the last couple of years to residents like Steven Hollinger, cofounder of the Seaport Alliance for a Neighborhood Design, that the more public process of establishing strict zoning rules was giving way to the planned development area process.

In the absence of new zoning rules based on the extensive goals outlined in the 1999 plan, Hollinger said, the community is presented with a ''Hobson's choice: Accept variances from existing zoning on a project-by-project basis, or you will be looking at parking lots for decades to come."

Urban planning specialists say Boston maintains considerably more zoning subjectivity -- city officials call it flexibility -- than most other cities. ''Boston is essentially an all-discretionary review process," Jerold S. Kayden, now a professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, said in 2003.

While developers are sometimes initially frustrated by the lack of established rules for their projects, some say planned development areas and similar tools have produced good results in a historic urban setting like Boston's, where strict zoning laws don't allow for desirable outcomes such as blocks with multiple uses.

Planned development areas ''provide more flexibility for public and private sectors to work to create the kind of unique places that make great cities tick," said Yanni Tsipis, vice president of Meredith & Grew Inc./Oncor, a real estate services firm.

Said Eric Kraus, vice president of communications for Gillette: ''This process provides a significant benefit over the more established zoning process. People have a true understanding of what the parties need to thrive in that area."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.

Link

Mike · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 402

I got this from the SAND site. But it's from 1/03 so it might not mean much anymore.

bosma · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 148

It would be nice to make this area somewhat like charles river

bosma · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 148

Here are a few interesting links:
Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan:
http://www.gcassoc.com/planning/fpc/

BRA's website about Fort Point:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/bra/Planning/PlanningInitsIndividual.asp?action=ViewInit&InitID=23

Beacon Capital Partners Chanel Center Website:
http://www.channel-center.com/flash_content/index.html

bosma · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 148

Poolio · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 193

I would rather see FPC look more like the Chicago River than the Charles River. Not with that sort of height necessarily (FAA would prevent that) but with the same sort of density. Buildings should come right to the waterfront with minimal green space. Gaps should be filled. All buildings should provide a solid "streetwall" (channel wall?) of at least 10 or 12 stories to enclose the space, making it feel more intimate, more interesting, more walkable. Space should be left to walk around the entire perimeter without leaving the water's edge, but this does not mean wide swaths of parkland; rather, a pedestrian sized brick-paved walkway would suffice. A little green space goes a long way, and this should be reserved for the end of the channel ("urban industrial wild" in the Goody Clancy plan).

We have a real good start on channel's west side, with Independence Wharf, 550 Atlantic, and Russia Wharf all providing density, height, and a solid wall. It's too bad the FRB doesn't come closer to the water, but the building's scale makes this exception palatable (if they'd only dress up that space a bit). Any development along the Post Office site should provide a pedestrian friendly edge and sufficient height to continue what's been started. There is also a good opportunity along the east side of the FPC, between Summer Street and Gillette to fill in with dense, mid-rise buildings to help enclose that side.

FPC is much narrower than the Charles and so needs to be treated differently. The Charles is too wide to be enclosed in this way, and its openness makes green, open space along its edge appropriate. FPC is more urban already, and that difference should be embraced. I can see FPC being an enormously successful destination for residents, workers, and tourists alike, bustling with pedestrians and waterside activity. The museums are already there; future development should keep an eye on encouraging pedestrian usage with cafes, storefronts, boat landings, a historic walk, that sort of thing.

DarkFenX · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1111

Fort Point may be on verge of becoming a trendy 'hood
By Scott Van Voorhis
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - Updated: 12:35 AM EST

Want to see the future of South Boston's Fort Point Channel?

Take a walk through the South End's bistro-packed streets.

Real estate investor Young Park is taking a page from the resurgence of Boston's South End as he plots the future of a wide swath of the Fort Point warehouse district.

Having recently acquired more than 1 million square feet of old Fort Point buildings, Park and his Berkeley Investments are now drawing up plans for a major revamp of the area.

And Park plans to borrow liberally from the lessons of Boston's South End, where sidewalk cafes and trendy eateries have helped turn what was once a run-down area into one of the city's priciest neighborhoods.

Park is now looking to lure several restaurants to his Fort Point holdings. No stranger to ambitious undertakings, the Hub real estate player is also overseeing the redevelopment of a failed downtown Worcester mall.

``We are big believers in using signature restaurants and interesting formulas to draw potential users,'' Park said. ``We have had a number of discussions with potential restaurateurs.''

But restaurants are just one part of a larger plan that involves creating a new district among Fort Point's graceful, turn-of-the-century industrial buildings.

Park is also looking at converting some of his newly bought Fort Point
buildings into hundreds of condos and apartments.

Meanwhile, he is also exploring new construction as well, with the possibility of a putting up a ``mid-rise'' where a parking lot now sits.

Along with condos, restaurants and new construction, Park wants to jazz up the lineup of tenants who now rent space from him.

That means pitching his buildings to advertising and public-relations firms who might find that the Back Bay has grown too pricey, he said.

BostonFaker · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 703

The cleansing of the channel of all the pollution would be nice also. I'm not talking crystal clear water, but at least get rid of and prevent the collection of all the floating waste.

steve6790 · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 19

City paves way for Fort Point development
By Scott Van Voorhis
Tuesday, November 15, 2005

E-mail article View text version View most popular
City Hall yesterday gave the green light to what could be the start of a sweeping redevelopment of land along the Fort Point Channel next to the city?s Financial District.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority voted to approve the use of ?planned development areas? for a key 37-acre stretch along the channel that includes the giant U.S. Postal Service complex next to South Station.

The new development rules generally allow developers and city officials greater flexibility, including tradeoffs for greater height in exchange for additional parkland and other concessions.

The move comes as postal officials continue to push to relocate their giant South Station mail sorting plant to a new site in South Boston.

That would open the way for millions of square feet of dense, high-rise development on the channel site.

Other Fort Point Channel property owners would also benefit, including the Barking Crab, which in the past had talks with a developer looking to build a condo high-rise, a BRA spokeswoman said.

But state Sen. Jack Hart (D-South Boston) said he will closely monitor any proposals for the postal service site given its potential impact on the neighborhood he represents.

?Developers who would like to develop that site would like to build to the moon,? said Hart, who said he wants to see ?reasonable development.?

However, the development proposal is not yet a done deal and will now have to pass muster before the city?s Zoning Board.

Any future developer of the postal service site would also likely have to amend the Municipal Harbor Plan ? and win state approval ? with any high-rise that tops 150 feet.

JohnnySic · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 72

Ron Newman · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1007

Leaving aside neighborhood names, presumably the USPS facility is in Hart's district and therefore of interest to him. People do live just on the other side of the channel from there, on A Street.

user_45 · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 48

Stalled Russia Wharf project gets a boost from BRA
By Chris Reidy and Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | November 15, 2005

The Boston Redevelopment Authority took steps yesterday that could help advance Russia Wharf, a large condo-and-office project near Fort Point Channel that has been stalled by a law-suit.

The lawsuit was filed by Extell Development Co., the developer of a nearby project, which is challenging Russia Wharf's zoning variances.

Under a BRA proposal outlined yesterday, it would be easier for developers near the downtown side of Fort Point Channel, including Russia Wharf's developer, Equity Office Properties, to pursue an alternative to the variance process.

Instead of applying for variances from existing zoning rules, neighborhood developers could ask to have their projects designated as planned development areas, or PDAs. PDAs achieve many of the same goals as variances but offer an additional advantage.

A PDA ''is more difficult to overturn in court than a zoning variance," said Matthew Kiefer, a real estate attorney with Goulston & Storrs.

Yesterday the BRA scheduled a hearing to consider Equity Office's request to have Russia Wharf designated as a PDA. If that request is granted, the project might be able to move forward despite the lawsuit.

BRA officials described yesterday's PDA proposal as ''the next logical step" in a long-term planning process for the neighborhood, and not one undertaken strictly to help Russia Wharf. Making it easier to obtain PDAs in this part of the city will benefit not only many property owners but the public because a PDA gives the city more control over developers on where to place such public amenities as parks and open space, BRA officials said.

Critics contend that PDAs amount to spot zoning, where existing rules mean little. ''I can't believe they're doing this in the middle of a lawsuit," said Shirley Kressel, an urban planner and frequent critic of the BRA. ''This deprives people of their judicial rights."

Equity Office declined to comment, as did Extell, which filed suit against Equity Office and which is developing a nearby hotel and condo complex called InterContinental Boston and The Residences at the InterContinental.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com; Thomas C. Palmer Jr. at tpalmer@globe.com.

? Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

DarkFenX · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1111

^^. That would probably better at the Russia Wharf thread. I'll repost it.

DarkFenX · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1111

Development a threat to artists
By Scott Van Voorhis
Monday, November 21, 2005

The days of South Boston?s Fort Point Channel as an artsy heir of New York?s SoHo is under threat as neighborhood artists battle for a foothold amid a rising wave of upscale redevelopment.

In the latest skirmish, roughly 100 artists are trying to work out a deal to save their apartments and studios after the buildings they live and do work in were acquired by a major Texas-based developer.

The district?s elegant 19th century warehouses have long been a haven for artists looking for cheap, but spacious digs to live and work in. But a series of developers, looking to cash in on the city?s skyrocketing condo prices, have bought up dozens of old warehouse and office buildings from long-time owner Boston Wharf.

In the latest move, Texas-based developer Archon Group, which bought the last of Boston Wharf?s properties this spring, is in talks that could decide the fate of roughly 100 Fort Point artists.

?There have been artists in the Fort Point community for many, many years,? said state Sen. Jack Hart (D-South Boston), who is concerned about the future of the neighborhood?s artists. ?They have been down there for a long time, before anybody really had an eye on the value of
the property.?

In fact, Fort Point spent decades as a sleepy artists? haven, with no one paying much attention to industrial buildings that time and relentless economic change seemed to have passed by.

But as the real estate market took off in recent years, things changed.

With condos selling for ever-higher prices, developers took a fancy to Fort Point?s sprawling industrial buildings, which offered lots of space on the cheap.Boston-based Berkely Investment and Texas-based Archon completed the property scramble this year, buying up dozens of Boston Wharf buildings and taking title to much of the neighborhood.

Now both companies are drawing up plans for pricey condos, sidewalk cafes and new shops and offices, either converting existing buildings or erecting new ones, say officials briefed on the proposals.

But as once forgotten industrial property has become trendy, Fort Point artists are feeling the squeeze.

Some have been pushed out by conversions, others by rising rents.

?We are small businesses. That is what gets driven out of any neighborhood that faces development, whether its the local convenience store or the potter up the street,? said Becky Dwyer, a Fort Point artist and former board member of the Fort Point Arts Community Inc.

?The concerns of people with million-dollar condos are way different than the concerns of artists just trying to make do and do work,? she added.

Now the neighborhood?s art organizations are looking to secure a place for the dozens of artists who live in the buildings Archon acquired.

One strategy that artists are exploring is acquiring a building that can be converted to affordable artist live-work housing, Dwyer noted.

It is a development play of their own that Fort Point artists have pulled off more than once over the years. Examples include the new Midway Studios, an artist building in the midst of Beacon Capital?s posh new Channel Center complex.

?The Fort Point artists community will disappear unless there is affirmative action to keep them,? warned Vivien Li, head of the Boston Harbor Association, which has its office in Fort Point.

In the meantime, arts community leaders are hoping to hammer out lease extensions for their members, who now face uncertain futures as Archon draws up its redevelopment plans.

Arts groups in the past have convinced developers to allow their members to move to other, available buildings to make way for redevelopment plans, Dwyer said.

So far, arts leaders have been talking to Archon, but no deal has been struck, said Hart, the neighborhood?s state senator.

?We are all very interested in those artists getting a fair shake,? Hart said.

DarkFenX · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1111

Menino eyes infrastructure funds to spur Fort Point development
By Scott Van Voorhis
Wednesday, December 14, 2005

City Hall wants help taming the Hub?s newest development frontier.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday proposed that city and state officials pool dollars to build roads, sewers and other infrastructure for a sprawling Fort Point Channel tract slated for redevelopment.

The 100-acre site, directly across the channel from South Station and the Financial District, has been targeted for millions of square feet of new construction, including 2,000 new condos and homes.

The U.S. Postal Service, Procter & Gamble Co., and other area property owners have drawn up a long-term master plan for the neighborhood, which has an abundance of parking lots and warehouse buildings.

But this section of South Boston?s industrial Fort Point district, while promising, also lacks basic infrastructure, and that could keep development plans on the backburner, city officials and development executives have said.

To help spur construction, Menino, in a breakfast meeting with local business leaders, said the city may finance some work by issuing bonds. ?This will spur development to happen now, rather than waiting for whenever the market cycles might be favorable,? he said.

But Menino also called for state officials to pick up some of the financial burden. New development on the Fort Point Channel would put an extra $110 million each year into state coffers, he estimated.

Options include state authorities floating bonds for various infrastructure improvements.

DarkFenX · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1111

A Fort Point makeover: Tower tops trendy plans
By Scott Van Voorhis
Friday, December 16, 2005

A Boston developer has unveiled an ambitious remake of Fort Point Channel?s turn-of-the-century warehouse district that ranges from lighted building facades and trendy eateries to a new tower.

Berkeley Investments lays out a blueprint that would turn the rough-edged Southie industrial area into a showcase Boston neighborhood. Berkeley?s 58-page ?Vision? is being circulated among Boston real estate executives.

The proposal includes plans to transform a 1907 office building at 381 Congress St. and a vacant lot next door into a 24-story tower. The high-rise?s format is still open, with either office, residential or hotel uses all being considered, according to Berkeley?s plan.

But the tower ? which would soar above the district?s warehouses ? is the one element of Berkeley?s plan likely to draw opposition from neighborhood activists and even South Boston?s development-wary elected officials, observers say.

Still, that?s just one piece of a sweeping plan that would turn rusty Fort Point into an artsy, residential enclave with a chic new sheen. Highlights include night-time facade lighting to show off Fort Point?s stately, old architecture. Dingy side alleys would be turned into brick-lined ?European?
style streets.

?An ambitious vision is needed to imagine what future life on the sidewalks and inside the buildings can be,? writes Young Park, Berkeley?s chief executive, in his firm?s Fort Point plan.

A new look for old Fort Point boulevards like Summer and Congress streets is a major part of the plan.

Berkeley plans to line the streets around its 12-building, 1.2 million-square-foot portfolio with trees, old-fashioned street lights, and first-floor awnings and canopies. Restaurants and stores are also envisioned for ground-floor perches in the firm?s Fort Point buildings, including an outdoor dining area where a loading platform now stands at 12 Farnsworth St.

Congress Street sidewalks would be widened and lined with pavers, while red brick is slated for side streets.

?There is a much greater emphasis on attracting retail. We are already seeing it,? noted Vivien Li, head of the Boston Harbor Association, which monitors Fort Point development.

garbribre · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 459

I can't read Van Bore-mees articles anymore. I get soooo pissed off! Who told that man he could write?! (or get him a better editor, damn it!)

Oakland's Warehouse and IronWorks districts (bookending Jack London Square) combined are not as dense or near half as large as Ft. Point or the Seaport, but already you can see that the comparative higher density that is being created in Oakland is a major plus (although the three 20+ story buildings proposed are getting their share of opposition here in Oakland, too). The mostly six to twelve story infill projects, including some half and full blocks of apartments and condos going up in Oakland should give the BRA (and its accompanying NIMBYs) a template to follow. (I do have pics from this part of Oakland and will post them in other cities....eventually.)

To end rant: if Oakland can put up 6-12 stories, Boston shouldn't have problems with a few mere 20+ in the mix. Jeesh!

Matt · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 840

someone needs to remind this idiot that most of those buildings are already 8-10 stories tall....an additional 14 stories is not 'soaring'. I agree...it's becoming more and more painful to read his sensationalism...unfortunately, the herald continues to scoop the globe on development issues.

garbribre · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 459

That explains it. That Rag. Buy the Enquirer instead. Far more fun and better written. Wink

One of my childhood friends used to write for the Herald, so I can say this with confidence of second-hand experience.

Mike · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 402

There was a rendering of the soaring Fort Point Channel tower in Friday's Herald. It looks to me like it's no taller than 275' or so.

I'll try to post it later.

xec · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 62

More on Berkeley's plans. This short blurb was in the business section of today's Globe:

statler · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 825

user_45 · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 48

I can't find exactly where this was discussed recently on the board so I thought it might fit in here.

A short blurb from C7A on the project, and a little rendering, in which I cant see much improvement on the building other than an improved plaza out front, I guess they are concentrating more on interior improvement and renovation than flashy new architecture. Think there was an opportunity here for both (a la the old Gehry proposal) but maybe that is not so bad a trend with all these museums around the world building fancy new buildings but then the art inside sucks.

Anyways....
http://www.c7a.com/Portfolio/current/boston_children.asp#

DarkFenX · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1111

DarkFenX · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1111

Mayor: Let state fund Fort Point infrastructure
Property tax not enough, he says

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr.and Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | February 17, 2006

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is proposing to jump-start development in the Fort Point Channel area by letting the state pay for roads, sidewalks, parks, and utilities.

In his annual speech to the Boston Municipal Research Bureau today, Menino is expected to propose legislation creating a device -- available not only in Boston but to all communities -- by which the state would sell bonds to prepare land in a commercial development for buildings.

Under the city's potentially controversial proposal, the state would use income taxes from new jobs established in the new development to pay off the bonds sold to put in the basic infrastructure.

''This is a district planning tool to build infrastructure," said Mark Maloney, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, who yesterday offered a preview of Menino's speech. ''This is bringing private-sector developers, the state, and the city together to raise bond financing."

Boston has long sought to shift some of its increasing financial burden to the state, contending it is the state's economic engine, contributing millions of dollars to state tax coffers but receiving back only a fraction of that in aid.

But persuading the Romney administration and the Legislature to assume the full cost of laying the groundwork for new buildings -- as municipalities traditionally have -- is likely to be a steep uphill burden.

''The city is talking about putting up nothing," said David I. Begelfer, chief executive of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. ''Didn't the state and federal government come in with billions of development dollars already?" Begelfer asked, referring to the Big Dig and the MBTA's Silver Line.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi has spoken with Menino about the proposal. A spokeswoman for DiMasi said he found it ''intriguing" and set up a meeting with three House committee chairmen to consider it.

With his plan, Menino, who says the city is strapped by its dependence on the property tax, is rejecting an approach passed by the Legislature last year to serve the same purpose.

Under ''district increment financing," the state allowed communities to commit the use of projected property tax revenue to sell and pay off bonds.

''We can't rely on the real estate tax to do district increment financing," Maloney said yesterday.

On another subject, Menino plans to propose financing new housing programs by boosting the so-called linkage fees that commercial and other large-scale developers are required to pay into a housing trust fund.

Saying a shortage of affordable housing has kept businesses from settling in the city, Menino will tell business leaders at the bureau's annual meeting that he will raise already substantial linkage fees by roughly 10 percent, to $7.87 per square foot for housing programs and $1.57 for jobs programs. The linkage rates had been $5.00 per square foot for more than a decade, from the time the legislation passed in 1987 until 2000. Combined, they currently are set at $8.62 per square foot.

''In the past few months I've been giving a lot of thought to Boston's future," Menino said yesterday. ''We need to be competitive. Downtown development can support an inflation adjustment in the linkage fee. This would provide more money for job training and housing."

Paul Guzzi, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, agreed that housing is a priority. ''If we can increase the supply, that is an enormous plus," Guzzi said. ''Boston has done a good job in terms of affordable housing. But we all have to do a better job."

Menino will argue the state should take a portion of the income taxes it will reap through new jobs in the Fort Point Channel area and use it to build the basic infrastructure that developers need. The city estimates income taxes at $40 million annually at full build-out, from about 12,000 new employees.

The city has done a detailed model of the neighborhood -- adjacent to Gillette Co. along A Street on the east side of Fort Point Channel -- and concluded it will take about $4.5 million a year to service the debt on bonds required to build roads, parks, and the like on 100 acres. The total initial cost of that infrastructure is estimated at $68 million, funded by 20-year bonds.

An official of Governor Mitt Romney's administration would not say whether the ambitious proposal has a chance. ''We look forward to talking with the mayor's office, and we want to reserve commentary until we see the details," said Joseph M. Donovan, spokesman for the state Executive Office of Economic Development.

dudeursistershot · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 715

here's an idea: have the city pay for it, since it's its goddamned job

briv · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 118

xec · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 62

ckb · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 126

Maybe the city should focus on one area at a time. This area is desirable, but it will become more so once the Seaport area is more developed. Lets let that area mature a bit more. Then maybe some private investors will be more interested in helping out with infrastructure concerns.

Mike · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 402

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Fort Point on the rise

March 19, 2006

FOR A GENERATION or longer, civic-minded Bostonians have talked about the waterfront where downtown meets South Boston as the next great development opportunity in the city. With all the Central Artery and Silver Line construction, and the fits and starts of private development, it sometimes seemed this promise would never be fulfilled.

This year, however, all the good work is coming together along the Fort Point Channel between the Congress Street and Evelyn Moakley bridges, and the first signs of public benefit are appearing farther south, all the way to the Gillette plant. These improvements, if they continue, will be one of the great legacies of the Menino administration.

The attention to the waterfront is generating enhancements for a pioneering Fort Point amenity. The Boston Children's Museum, a pathfinder when it relocated to the channel from Jamaica Plain in 1979, will break ground on a $45 million expansion early next month. It will substantially improve the public space along the south side of the Channel when it is finished in about 18 months.

Government involvement will result in substantial benefits here. Construction of the Silver Line transit prompted creation of a small park next to the Evelyn Moakley Bridge. Frank McCourt, Boston native and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, last week donated an adjacent parcel of land to the museum for the creation of a bigger open space. What is now a parking lot will become a vibrant play space along the Harborwalk.

This new park will be improved with the help of a $500,000 donation by the developers of Russia Wharf across the channel. They hope to begin work late this year on a condominium-office project, which should be completed in late 2009. In the meantime though, they have constructed a section of Harborwalk across their property. But strollers along the waterfront have little reason to go there now because it stops abruptly at the next property line. This will change in October when the Intercontinental Hotel and Residences opens, along with an extension of the Harborwalk and two wide public lawns. The space will also be enlivened by an outdoor restaurant in warm weather.

Once this is done, the Harborwalk will be complete all around this section of the channel, opening it up for enhanced public use. What a difference from a decade ago, when the downtown side of the channel consisted of a Boston Edison substation and a hodgepodge of private buildings that walled the water off from the public use.

Farther along the channel, the federal government is renovating the plaza outside the Federal Reserve building. Across Summer Street, people who arrive at South Station find their connection to the water a little smoother because the Fidelity companies improved the passageway from the station to the old Stone and Webster building. Small improvements like these add much to the public enjoyment of the waterfront.

On the South Boston side of the Summer Street Bridge, perhaps the most significant improvement came last fall, with the opening of a section of the Harborwalk on what was once a staging area for construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel. It is already immensely popular with the people who work and live in the old industrial area nearby that is becoming a locus of office and residential development.

After much neighborhood disappointment with earlier efforts, the Boston Redevelopment Authority is working on a master plan that would allow plenty of new construction in the parking lots that dot the area, as well as a narrow park to connect the waterfront with the interior of the neighborhood. The new parkland would add to the value and livability of the neighborhood.

Back on the downtown side, the Postal Service is continuing its low-key but persistent campaign to move to land alongside the Reserve Channel in South Boston. This would open up the huge South Station site for development, and would facilitate the reopening of Dorchester Avenue and the extension of the Harborwalk all around this section of the channel. The BRA needs to keep pushing for this relocation, which would create a new commercial district, make better use of underutilized land in South Boston, and add to the public realm along on the waterfront.

Mayor Tom Menino once felt that the development of the waterfront would be one of his great contributions to the city. ''When our Seaport comes to life, don't be surprised if you see a new Boston skyline . . . capturing the splendor of our waterfront, alive with activity," he said in 1997.

These days, Menino seems to be more interested in downtown skyscrapers, but his words were prescient. The waterfront he foresaw is shaping up along the Fort Point Channel. He needs to make sure that it all comes together to enhance the economic vitality and public enjoyment of the city.

Link

statler · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 825

Waterfront compromise
In a rare move, leaders of community groups applaud city for revising Fort Point Channel plan

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | March 28, 2006

Six months after rebelling against the city's plan for a $2.3 billion redevelopment along the Fort Point Channel, the same community leaders are shouting hosannas for the Boston Redevelopment Authority's change of heart.

''It seemed like one of the most responsive moves from the BRA that I've seen in the last 10 years," said former critic Steven Hollinger, cofounder of a neighborhood watchdog group, Seaport Alliance for a Neighborhood Design.

This doesn't happen every day in Boston.

City Hall planners rarely hear gratitude from neighborhoods facing enormous new development projects. And BRA planners last year were singed by community criticism that they had dealt almost exclusively with the area's four big property owners -- and had shut out the residents -- in the emerging neighborhood referred to as the 100 acres.

Instead of trying to force the master plan they had hammered out with the landowners, however, planners spent six months coming up with a new design.

They nearly doubled the length of a central park, which has the effect of making more of the neighborhood closer to the water. They also reduced the maximum height allowed for almost any new buildings, from 200 feet to 180 feet, creating an atmosphere that is expected to feel a lot less congested.

More than that, city officials just let the community feel like it was being heard -- something some residents say too seldom happens.

''We're not trying to prevent development. We're really trying to advocate for a balance that has an urban quality of life," said Valerie Burns, president of the Boston Natural Areas Network and a 21-year resident of the area. ''The neighborhood felt ignored, or outplayed by the developers. But at this point the plan looks good."

BRA officials are unaccustomed to hearing such praise. At a January meeting in a tiny room in the vast Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, the BRA rolled out its revamped plan. It was a big hit.

Kairos Shen, the BRA's director of planning, was taken aback. ''I want to thank everybody for thanking us," he said.

The land is a former shipping and warehousing district, between the channel and the convention center, and between Summer Street and West Broadway. It is in transition from parking lot and Big Dig construction use to what City Hall envisions as a chic neighborhood of artists, businesses, restaurants, and lofts.

Final details of a master plan for the area that sets guidelines for development -- the document that caused community unrest in the fall -- must still be worked out.

The changes have to be agreed to by property owners, who have lost about 5 percent of the 6.2 million square feet they thought they had secured for development.

The state must accept the city and community vision of the area as well.

The four big players in the area are Gillette, which owns about half the land and was purchased last year by Procter & Gamble Co.; the United States Postal Service, which controls the second-largest block of land, most of it now used for parking; a partnership of Archon Group and Goldman Properties Co. of New York, which owns 17 buildings near the channel; and Beacon Capital Partners LLC of Boston, developer of the Channel Center mixed-use blocks.

All four caution the deal isn't done yet, but they generally endorse the new master plan.

Tony Goldman, president of Goldman Properties, said, ''We're encouraged, but we are also really interested in some openness to flexibility as to how density is distributed."

Many in the community objected not only to the private discussions that led to those guidelines but to the original plan itself, which called for multiple blocks of redevelopment they thought would have been too dense and looked too much like downtown.

Now, community leaders praise the central park that has been extended to the water's edge, with overall parkland increased to about 11.5 acres.

They like the reduction in the maximum height of buildings to 180 feet -- though they still have some reservations about where those tallest buildings will be located.

But until the city gives final approval to the development plans of each of the landowners, the community won't know precisely what it is getting.

''We've learned to be somewhat circumspect about what we see in any one plan," said Burns. ''If it works, people will be very delighted. If it works, people will be very surprised."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
Link

xec · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 62

The original and revised plans:

http://www.ci.boston.ma.us/bra/pdf/publications//100%20ACRES%20Jan%2017%20Presentation.pdf

LeTaureau · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 118

^Thanks for posting that link.

I really don't like the redesign of that park. How much of that parkland is going to actually be usable? The thinner portions will be nothing but a median between two roads. I'm tired of people squawking so much about parks. The city has enough parks.

This is going to eventually compromise a huge build-out and major addition of density to the city. I estimate over 1,500 units of housing could be built in this area, and that I think is a conservative estimate.

It would be nice if Gillette would just get out completely and sell of the remainder of their property. It would finish off the whole area nicely.

Ron Newman · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1007

Why? What's wrong with a factory remaining here? I don't want to see Boston completely lose its blue-collar industry.

TC · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 62

LeTaureau · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 118

JohnnySic · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 72

The Gillette complex has always looked out of place there, and will look more out of place as the area gets developed. I think they themselves know this and will hold out for the best price on the land, which will only go up in value.

Merper · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 227

... i think i prefer the 2005 massing and street alignments...

I too think there is a tad too much open space... just a tad though...

tocoto · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 181

Not much excitement in this project. A bunch of squat ugly buildings mixed with parks. I'm sure there will be no reason to go there unless you live there. Too bad no one wants to build an exciting city to be proud of anymore.

Ron Newman · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1007

On the other hand, this looks to me like a reasonable extension of the warehouse district that surrounds it. If that is a new pedestrian bridge across the Channel, I like it.

As for Gillette, they have an interest in not being hemmed in by residential development, in case they eventually want to expand onto some of that 'wasted' land. This needs to be respected. I strongly disagree with any notion that Gillette somehow doesn't belong here.

chumbolly · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 120

Ron Newman · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1007

I also don't see how it's too much open space. There's a strip of green next to the water, where it belongs, and a Comm. Ave-scaled boulevard reaching inland. A good place to move some of the Fort Point Open Studios event outdoors, if that idea appeals to the artists who will live around it. It all seems about right to me.

ablarc · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 825

2005 plan is much more interesting. 2006 plan reveals all at once; no mystery, no closure, no surprise. Belongs in the suburbs.

briv · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 118

Ooh! Another linear park that begins nowhere and ends nowhere. I guess it never occurred to anyone to maybe connect this grassy dead-end to that other monumental grassy dead-end named the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Yes, it would still be one giant path to nowhere, but at least it would display some semblance of urban cohesiveness. I see they did include a pedestrian bridge across the channel that leads directly to a blank wall of the postal annex, not really even near the customer entrance. Thats useful. I wonder if the Feds will set up a booth at the annex side checking the ID of everyone that crosses, you know, like they do whenever you try to cut through that stretch of Dorchester St to S. Boston.

But back to the park, hey, as the reporter points out, at least this big swath of big green emptiness should cut down on congestion. Cause we know how congested the Fort Point is these days. In all seriousness, its the only place in Boston Ive ever seen tumbleweeds. Im not kidding. No, theyre not the American mid-plains, old west showdown variety, but their city-slicker cousins. Big, bouncing, rolling wads of newspaper, plastic wrappers, and god-knows-what-else, all bound up in dirty dead shriveled up local flora. I seen them fly past me two, three, four at a time. And I wont even get started on the dust storms, or what its like to try get a sandwich or even a cup of coffee down there on a saturday (aka, an exercise in futility)... Maybe they should name the new park Tumbleweed Green.

Ron Newman · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1007

I think they're anticipating the eventual move of the Postal Service out of their current location, and its replacement by more development.

TC · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 62

This plan takes what could possibly have been a couple of nice destination parks and turned it into a mini greenway.

I liked the original waterfront park that had a setback from the water and was surrounded on 3 sides by (dare I say it) buildings.

Ron Newman · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 1007

The success of the parks will depend largely on the quality of the buildings surrounding them, and on their first-floor uses.

TC · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 62

I totally agree. The building design and more importantly the ground floor uses are important.

I just think the 1st design creates a nice focal point for those ground floor uses along the water. Better than the beginning of the median strip leading to the BEC.

shiz02130 · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 94

A couple shots of Fort Point Channel, on March 30, 2006, from the harborwalk next to Gillette. Its amazing how much space the postal annex takes up! I didn't get much of the vent building next door, but out of all of them, this is my favorite one. They didn't attempt to dress it up, it's just bare concrete and metal, and it looks GOOD for what it is.

justin · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 418

Funny, what the reflections do the nearer of the 500 Atlantic towers -- almost make it disappear.

justin