So many significant economic and political events happened this year that it will take some time for all the pieces to fall together in a way that augurs the future.
The federal and state economies show significant signs of recovery, strong enough to mark an exit from recession.
On the local front, our reportage in Banker & Tradesman has followed the economic trends, particularly in the Greater Boston area. This year, pent-up demand, foreign investment and new growth in the tech and biotech sectors combined to create vigorous market activity in the Boston and Cambridge markets that has had knock-on effects to the Route 128 belt and beyond.
In February, Banker & Tradesman reported on the imprint of Hong Kong billionaire Gerald Chan, a Harvard-trained entrepreneur who has long-standing ties to the Boston area and who has made significant investments in Boston and Cambridge properties.
Also, as we reported in October, James Hook & Co., whose fourth-generation wholesale seafood waterfront operation burned to the waterline in 2008, floated – so to speak – a redevelopment proposal for a 285-foot residential tower and a sit-down restaurant. The tower proposal requires a waiver from the Boston Redevelopment Authority on the 55-foot height limit on buildings near the harbor. Developer Don Chiofaro encountered comparable issues when his tower proposal ran into questions about shade and wind patterns as affecting the newly-constructed Greenway.
In April, we reported that foreign investment is fueling the hotel construction boom to the point that higher construction costs are not considered an obstacle by those investors. Further west in Waltham, in August we reported that Boston Properties sought to develop a 230,000 office complex to compete with downtown sites.
That’s the development front. But other major stories showed that not all boats have risen with the tide. In April, Zillow reported that 40 percent of Greater Boston homes were unaffordable for “typical buyers.” In June, Attorney General Martha Coakley sued Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over their refusal to modify foreclosures, allowing homes to be sold to nonprofit corporations that would in turn re-sell the homes back to the original mortgagors at reduced prices. Then, there was the Marlborough-based TelexFree’s pyramid scheme scandal that broke in May, which ensnared Leominster-based Fidelity Bank President John Merrill, a long-standing leader in the regional banking community, because his brother James, a principal of TelexFree, was one of the leading defendants in a case brought by the state. Fidelity Bank had taken in deposits from the company, and settled the state case in September for $3.5 million.
The changes in state and national politics as a result of the 2014 midterm elections throw another ingredient into the mix. Former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s withdrawal from public service shortly before his death opened the way for current Mayor Martin J. Walsh to reorder the development scene for Boston going forward, and the election of Charles Baker as the next governor reorders the playing field on the city and state level. It will be an interesting year in 2015, and we’ll be around to cover all of the breaking news.
