For John Hynes, one of Boston’s boldest developers, it is fast becoming time to either put up or shut up.
Hynes has spent years spinning beautiful visions of his multi-billion dollar Seaport Square project, the new urban neighborhood he wants to build on South Boston’s waterfront. Everyone seems to love it – but you can’t dine, live or shop in a glossy rendering.
After 2011 came and went with no shovel in the ground, Hynes is now saying he hopes to start moving dirt this spring. We’ll see.
The fact is, Hynes needs to back up his grand vision for Seaport Square with some construction – and soon. Otherwise, he risks going down in city history known as the guy who blew not one, but two landmark Hub projects – the other obviously being the big hole in the ground in Downtown Crossing at the Filene’s site.
“He has promised that development will start this spring,” said Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association. “We have waited a long time for development of the Seaport Square area, and we are very hopeful that John Hynes will move forward.”
The grandson of one’s of Boston’s most respected mayors and son of newscaster Jack Hynes, John Hynes certainly has the vision thing down.
He’s grabbed headlines with his visions of what life will be like in his 6 million-square-foot Seaport Square project, slated to take shape on a swath of windswept parking lots across from the Moakley courthouse and Fan Pier.
Over the years, Hynes has talked about a neighborhood overlooking the waterfront that would include everything from smart homes to its own school – an idea since quietly put aside after irking Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
But ever since he demolished a chunk of the Filene’s complex to make way for a tower that never got built, leaving a big hole in the heart of Downtown Crossing and enraging Menino, Hynes has faced a major credibility gap.
Sure, the guy has vision, but can he execute? Yeah, he built State Street’s headquarters tower, but that was more than a decade ago.
Clearly recognizing what’s at stake, Hynes has been pushing hard to make Seaport Square a reality. He’s got a deal lined up with a hotel developer for a parcel near the Barking Crab, and is hammering out another agreement with apartment giant Avalon Bay for a pair of 20-story rental towers on lots just across the way from the Moakley courthouse.
But while those are definitely good signs for the future of Hynes’ Seaport Square, the ball is still in Hynes’ court.
Short Leash
After the Filene’s debacle, City Hall is taking no chances on a repeat. Before the big Avalon Bay apartment towers can get built, Hynes has to first start work on a promised, 12,000-square-foot innovation center and a park.
Basically, the city is saying, no amenities means no apartment towers. And while it may sound simple enough, but Hynes is going to have to scramble to pull this off.
Developers will fall all over themselves promising everything from marinas to abundant green space, but they almost always want to build the fun stuff later after the money starts rolling in.
Basically, Hynes is being asked to put down a sizeable deposit up front before he can start digging another hole – this time in the midst of Menino’s beloved waterfront, now renamed the “Innovation District.”
Is it fair? Who knows, given the mayor has long had the evil eye on Hynes, whose main fault seems to have been aggressively promoting his big development plans in the press. Developers who talk too much – and hog the glory – typically don’t do all that well in Tom Menino’s Boston.
But whether it’s fair or not for Hynes to have to build out the amenities first, while waiting for the cash to come in later, it’s also the reality of the situation – a situation Hynes himself helped create with the Filene’s debacle.
Hynes has a rare opportunity. He can not only achieve career redemption after the mess he left in Downtown Crossing, but leave an even greater mark on the city than his grandfather did during his years as mayor.
This spring, we will see whether Hynes is for real or not.
