While other Massachusetts municipalities wait for an uncertain economic rebound to stimulate commercial development, Quincy is boldly charting its own economic course.
The historic City of Presidents, birthplace of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, has embarked on a $1.3 billion redevelopment of Quincy Center that should be considered as a new model for urban redevelopment efforts across Massachusetts.
The project is remarkable not just for its potential to revitalize the city’s aging center, but for the innovative financing agreement behind it.
Total build-out of the 50-acre project will include $289 million in public infrastructure improvements – from new utilities to new roads, sidewalks and parking facilities throughout downtown.
Street-Works Development, the White Plains, N.Y.-based project developer, is fronting the bulk of the public infrastructure improvement costs. The city will issue municipal bonds to reimburse Street-Works for the infrastructure costs as construction milestones are met and buildings are leased. Debt service on the bonds will come from Chapter 121A urban development payments made to the city by Street-Works after the project starts generating revenue from sales and rent, plus fees from new city-owned parking garages.
The city has also applied for $50 million through the state’s new Infrastructure Investment Incentive Program, called I-Cubed.
Construction is expected to start in 2013 and could take 20 years to complete. The project, called New Quincy Center, will include more than 1 million square feet of office space; more than 700 housing units; two hotels; a cinema and entertainment complex; public parking facilities with 3,500 spaces; 570,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space; and a series of public gathering places, including Adams Green – a new town green in front of the historic Church of the Presidents.
The unusual public/private financing arrangement is already attracting interest from urban development specialists, as well as Massachusetts legislators. Requiring the developer to foot the initial public infrastructure improvement costs reverses traditional urban development financing and eliminates the public risk often associated with redevelopment projects.
Mayor Thomas Koch says the agreement protects taxpayers because the city doesn’t borrow any money until the project is producing revenue, and no money from the city’s general fund or any increased property taxes on homeowners goes toward the project.
Street-Works has already had success with its urban renewal model – although on a smaller scale – with Blue Back Square, a 600,000-square-foot, mixed-use retail and housing development in West Hartford, Conn. The project’s 2005 agreement involved public financing and the use of public property, and sparked a firestorm of controversy and several lawsuits.
But six years later, despite the challenging economy, Blue Back Square’s combination of residences, offices, restaurants and retail spaces is thriving. West Hartford Mayor R. Scott Slifka says Blue Back has been a “centerpiece for attracting new business to our town.”
There are certainly risks involved in Quincy’s redevelopment strategy, which hinges on significant population and employment growth in the area over the next several decades. But Quincy’s downtown is dying from an all-too-familiar exodus of retailers, restaurants, businesses and residents.
Koch says New Quincy Center will revitalize the city and make Quincy the “economic engine” for the entire region in years to come.
That remains to be seen.
But few cities get the chance to rebuild their entire downtowns, much less do it without sticking their taxpayers with the tab.
Congratulations, Quincy. Thrifty farmer John Adams would be proud.
