Editor’s note: The following is an open letter from B&T columnist Scott Van Voorhis to Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch regarding Quincy’s endangered downtown redevelopment plan.

Mayor Koch, we’ve chatted a couple times on the phone, but other than that, I don’t know you from a hole in the wall.

But I do know a few things about both development and about Quincy, the once sleepy, perpetual diamond-in-the-rough city of more than 93,000 you’ve run for the past six years.

Mayor, Quincy is hot right now. Red hot. As prices skyrocket in Boston and Cambridge, Somerville and Arlington, homebuyers are flocking to the City of Presidents, many of them young professionals with children in tow or on the way.

There are bidding wars right now for home in your hometown – one home recently fielded 22 offers – with an average of seven offers for every home that sells now, according to brokerage Redfin.

Buyers priced out of Quincy are heading to suburban Weymouth – imagine that!

But Mayor, Quincy’s winning streak, its forward momentum, its newfound mojo is suddenly in danger. The collapse of that ambitious, $1.6 billion plan to transform Quincy’s dead zone of a city center into an urban gem has sparked real excitement and opened the eyes of buyers and businesses alike. But now that plan has gone from winning accolades to ridicule after your decision, quite justified, to give master developer Street-Works the boot.

Without further ado, Mayor, here is my fine, unsolicited advice:

Choose Wisely

Street-Works seems to have done a fine job drafting some gorgeous renderings and castles in the sky of what a new Quincy Center might look like, but the developer clearly wasn’t up to the job of pulling together the vast sums in private financing needed to build the $1.6 billion project it designed, despite years poured into the effort.

Mayor, what in the world were you and your city thinking when the decision was made to pick Street-Works in 2008?

Yes, Street-Works was paired with Related Beal; that is until the veteran Boston developer quietly pulled out last year amid signs all was not well with the downtown revamp.

But a quick perusal of Street-Works website should have raised red flags for anyone with more than a passing knowledge of commercial development. Most troubling is the scant evidence of Street-Works having undertaken anything nearly so grand in the past – there is a vague reference to $1 billion worth of projects over 25 years – and the fact that as of press time, Street-Works still features Quincy Center as the lead project in its portfolio. I guess there hasn’t been time for the company to update the website since it was terminated from the project more than two weeks ago.

The only other project is some planning being done for a university town out in Ohio. Really? That’s peanuts, at least when comes to the heavy hitters that dominate the real estate world in the Boston area.

Mayor, I read you are hiring a consultant to help find a new developer. Good move. Now go out and snag a true heavy hitter, with a track record of pulling off big projects, rather than just one with outsized ambitions. Don’t settle for wannabes this time.

Avoid The Blame Game

Street-Works went out swinging, taking out an ad in the Patriot-Ledger blaming a combination of a restrictive city contract and rising construction costs. That construction costs are on a tear again is true, but then again, developers across the Boston area are dealing with the same phenomenon. There’s also been finger-wagging at the trade unions, with suggestions that labor costs, beyond cement and steel, also weighing costs down. I admit to barking up this tree myself.

But after questioning whether the local unions can still provide the man and woman power to do the project in what is now thankfully tightening labor market, that there are still lots of unemployed and underemployed hard hats ready and eager to work. In fact, labor leaders have been working hard to get the project off the ground, even trying to foster conversations between Street-Works and union pension funds that.

It’s increasingly clear that we have developer who got in over its head. It’s time to move on and find another builder. Playing scrooge with the unions is a loser’s game.

Keep Thinking Big

Quincy not only has relatively affordable real estate, but also has tremendous, untapped potential, from investments in new schools to a rich history few communities can match, even in Massachusetts.

Its four Red Line MBTA stops may be one of its biggest assets – it’s by far the most functional T line. You can be in downtown Boston in 10 minutes.

Moreover, as the final resting place of two presidents and their wives, there’s a reason Quincy is called the City of Presidents. So it was heartening to hear that one major highlight of the project will move forward, whatever else happens.

Millions in public money will help reroute the busy city thoroughfare that cuts around the front of the Church of the Presidents, rescuing this historic landmark from the ugly traffic island it has been marooned on for too many years. Both John Adams and John Quincy Adams and their first ladies are interned in crypts in the basement. Millions more will be spent building a park in front of the church.

But keep your eye on the ball, mayor. The private sector development should be as a grand as the public sector plans.

Forget Street-Works’ parting shot that the project, given current conditions, is “impossible.” That’s a loser’s lament. Yes, it may make sense to build the project in pieces rather than in one, massive, un-digestible chunk, but phasing the project shouldn’t mean settling for the humdrum at the expense of the great. Don’t settle for some mishmash of glorified CVSs, third-rate chain restaurants and lifeless office space, Mayor.

Quincy is the City of Presidents. And, frankly, it’s high time it looked the part. 

Email: sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com