It's no Winthrop Square: State gets no takers for Chinatown parcels

By adamg on Tue, 05/02/2017 - 9:10am

The Globe reports not a single developer was willing to match the state's minimum $167 million price for 5 1/2 acres of land next to South Station due to the difficulties of developing the parcels, which include a steam plant that would have to be rebuilt.

Last week, the City Council approved a deal in which Millennium Partners will pay the city $153 million for the condemned Winthrop Square garage. Millennium Partners was one of six bidders for the property.

Neighborhoods:

Chinatown

Topics:

Development

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Comments

Compare to Volpe in Kendall too

By LN on Tue, 05/02/2017 - 11:00am.

This is an interesting contrast to both the Winthrop Square project as well as the Volpe Center redevelopment in Kendall. Would be curious to hear the inside baseball on why this fell short, especially after MassDOT announced they would consider lower bids.

I would guess that some of the public benefits required of bidders carry risk beyond just their monetary cost. Decking over the freeway is going to require pretty extensive coordination with MassDOT on lane closures, etc. And I suspect relocating a steam plant might be even more complicated, especially since Veolis has no real stake in the project's success.

Contrast that to Kendall Square, where the sole public benefit requested by the feds was a new lab/office building for the Volpe Center. And the layout of that site means that the new building can be built on terra firma.

Hey, Bob Kraft can wedge a

By Chris77 on Tue, 05/02/2017 - 1:49pm.

Hey, Bob Kraft can wedge a soccer stadium in there, perfect for the thousands of urban hipsters who watch Revolution matches.

The spike in Revolution inspired skinny jeans sales alone

By bulgingbuick on Wed, 05/03/2017 - 9:29am.

would pay for a Kneeland Street stadium.

Market value

By Roslindaler on Tue, 05/02/2017 - 2:23pm.

The state has a terrible track record of valuing the parcels over and next to highways. It is incredibly costly to build on them and the state often includes all sorts of easements and other requirements. The market value of these parcels is low as evidenced by the fact that they cannot sell air rights over the mass pike in the back bay/south end. It would be of more public benefit if they priced them for development so that we could reap the tax benefits of the improved land and do away with eye sores.

Or just auction them

By Jason on Wed, 05/03/2017 - 12:40pm.

And let the market set the value.

Any sources on where D6 would move to?

By boo_urns on Tue, 05/02/2017 - 3:09pm.

I had heard something reimported about maybe Dudley Square, although that might have been for the 10 Par Plaza move location. Either way, I always thought that 185 Kneeland Street building just made sense as a central location for the D6 HQ just because of how close it is to the Central Artery (literally on top of it), as well as the rest of the tunnel systems. D6 does go out to Cambridge and as far south as Westwood. At the top of my head, although, sure, it'd be nice to get that money, I can't think of a more strategically located HQ for D6.

The Dudley Square idea must

By Rob on Tue, 05/02/2017 - 10:35pm.

The Dudley Square idea must've been for Park Plaza relocation.

A highway district hq would need to be somewhere in proximity to the highways, wouldn't it?