Rowes Wharf
With the passing of legendary developer Norman Leventhal, who played a crucial role in the city’s modern renaissance, the post of master builder is up for grabs in Boston.
It seems unlikely that any single developer will be able fill aNorman’s shoes. Leventhal not only left us with some of the city’s most iconic projects – Rowes Wharf and the Post Office Square Park, to name two – but also fueled Boston’s comeback after a decades-long slide into decay and irrelevance.
But there is fierce competition among an array of real estate moguls to shape and reshape Boston as we head deeper into the 21st century. In fact, it’s an explosion of vision and talent, one that may very well someday be looked upon as the golden age of Boston development.
Leading contenders in my book are former City Hall power broker Tom O’Brien, waterfront builders John Hynes and Joe Fallon, Millennium Partners’ Anthony Pangaro and the Doug Linde/Mortimer Zuckerman team over at Boston Properties.
And that’s just the first tier, with a slew of other developers reshaping various city neighborhoods.
Behind The Boom
Perhaps it is no coincidence that this is all happening now. We have an all-out scramble for development glory and fame among a field of developers that rivals in size the slate of potential Republican presidential contenders, sans the nut jobs.
The late Tom Menino did many good things, but he was a control freak when it came to Boston’s development scene. Standing out from the crowd and pushing bold plans were not the way to go in those not-so-long-past days. It paid to be very careful what you said and what you proposed, and even more to be in good with the mayor before you did it.
A perfect example is the all-out bidding war that’s brewing for the city-owned parking garage off Winthrop Square in the heart of the Financial District.
Menino unveiled a proposal back in 2006 for a thousand-foot tower at the site. But when he called for big-name developers and architects from around the world to take a crack at the project, just one, a local travel and credit card magnate with no building experience, took him up.
By contrast, eight developers, a who’s who of the Boston development scene, have submitted tower plans for the site under bidding just launched by Mayor Marty Walsh’s new administration. It’s too early say how Walsh’s development policies will be judged, but he has taken the lid off the pot, and that’s a very good thing.
So the question no longer is who has the mayor’s ear, with court intrigue deciding who gets to build and who doesn’t. Rather, it is whom among this cast of powerful developers and builders is best equipped, in terms of personality and business tactics, to thrive in this new and much more freewheeling environment.
Rating The Contenders
Right now I’d give O’Brien, head of HYM Investment Group and the developer behind ambitious plans to redevelop the Government Center garage, and Hynes, master of the massive Seaport Square project, the edge.
Both managed to survive the Menino years. A rising star, O’Brien was shoved out of his job as the head of the Boston Redevelopment Authority back in 2000, while Hynes found himself in the mayor’s crosshairs after his plans to redevelop the Filene’s project went south with the economy in 2008.
Just staying in the business in Boston during those years was a significant accomplishment and both developers look primed to roll with their newfound freedom.
After struggling for years to keep his project alive, Hynes is starting to build some serious momentum behind his Seaport Square plan, one of the biggest projects ever proposed in Boston. Construction recently kicked off on a pair of apartment towers, and future plans call for more housing, shops and even an international school, on the neighborhood-sized, 23-acre site.
For his part, O’Brien wants to kick off construction this year of his 2.3-million-square-foot redevelopment of the Government Center garage. O’Brien plans to level the obscenely hideous, bunker-like structure to make way for six buildings, including a stylish, Cesar Pelli-designed glass tower. Across the river, his HYM group is busy rolling out a new Cambridge neighborhood at North Point. Now O’Brien is gunning for the Winthrop Square project just put out to bid by City Hall, with plans for a 780-foot tower that rivals the Hancock, along with a new city school and a rebuilt St. Anthony Shrine Church.
Of course, Millennium Partners, Boston Properties and waterfront developer Joe Fallon have been some of the most active developers in Boston over the past few years. All benefited from being on Menino’s good list, with a low public profile being one of the top criteria.
Now that the rules of the game have changed somewhat, it will be interesting to see how these players who dominated development in Boston during the 1990s and 2000s fare going forward.
Certainly Millennium has built a lot, though its portfolio of upscale glass condo towers haven’t made any bold architectural statements and can seem a bit monotonous. Millennium’s new 60-story Downtown Crossing tower, complete with a $37.5-million penthouse, may change that when it opens next door to the now redeveloped Filene’s building.
Fallon earned his spot in the history of Boston development when he saved the landmark Fan Pier. The once-struggling waterfront project, a cornerstone of the Seaport development boom, been steadily taking shape under his tutelage, building after new building, after two decades of false starts and flops.
And Boston Properties seems likely to continue to hit home runs, with a big tower planned for North Station.
Of course, there are a whole bunch of players on the second tier, who, with a little luck, could break through to the top.
Dick Friedman is poised to make a really big splash on the Boston skyline with his 60-story Four Seasons tower, which could very well see some of the most expensive condo sales ever inked in the Hub.
Steve Samuels has transformed the formerly gritty streets of Fenway with upscale new apartment and condo towers, one of the more remarkable – and positive – transformations in city history.
And Don Chiofaro, who built International Place’s distinctively designed twin towers, is hoping for a repeat with plans for a pair of office and condo towers along the Greenway, where the hideous New England Aquarium parking garage now stands.
Will we see one developer emerge as the city’s new master builder, ala Leventhal? Who knows, but if nothing else, we are looking at one of the most talented and ambitious fields of developers Boston has ever seen.
